COLOMBO. Sept 8: The government wants to extend war-torn Sri Lanka's state of emergency. approaching Parliament on Tuesday for permission to do so, reports AP.

Speaker KB Ratnayake put the government's proposal up for debate, but fixed no date for voting. The government must seek parliament's approval every month. In the past, the governing People's AlUance coalition. with only a one-seat majority in the 225-member House, has scrapped through with the support of smaller parties.

Parts of Srl Lanka, including the north and the east, the traditional homeland of the minority Tamils, have been under the state of emergency for several years now because of threat of attacks by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE. The Tigers launched their separatist war in 1983.

Last month. President Chandrika Kumaratunga ’extended the emergency to the remaining parts of the island, saying the country faced a difficult security situation. She also postponed provincial council elections, saying shifting 30.000 security men from the battlefront to election duty would weaken the government war effort.

Critics said Kumaratunga simply wanted to avoid elections'.