Sri Lanka's leftist party JVP or the People's Liberation Front has agreed to go soft on some of the hard-line points in their deal with the ruling party's presidential candidate Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse.

The 12-point pact officially entered between Rajapakse and the JVP here Thursday and issued to media envisages a softer line than the draft agreement released on Monday.

The part in the draft that called for stringent consideration of Norway's facilitating role in the peace process with the Tamil Tigers sounds less emphatic in the pact.

It now says "it has been agreed to review the Norwegian role to see if they should be allowed to continue" as opposed to the words "it has been agreed to stringently review the Norwegian role."

The draft came in for criticism from the opposition ranks and media for its hard-line on the free liberal economy as fears were expressed that the free market enterprise system practiced in this island from 1977 would be scrapped.

The pact signed Thursday says that a balanced economic policy paving way for the state and private sectors would be adopted.

The JVP, who quit the government in June over dispute involving the post-Tsunami Operational Management Structure (P-TOMS), has stuck to its guns on the abolition of the joint mechanism aimed at delivering tsunami relief aid to the Tamil regions.

Rajapakse has also secured the support of the hard-line all Buddhist monk party JHU or the National Heritage Party, in addition to the support from the JVP.

His main rival, the main opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, is set to garner the support of all ethnic minorities in his bid to become the country's executive president.

The election date is yet to be declared although it must be held before Nov. 22.

Source: Xinhua