President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe met for nearly an hour to discuss the crisis that erupted November 4 when Kumaratunga sacked three key ministers and suspended parliament for two weeks.
"There was no breakthrough in the talks," an official source said.
"But the talks were cordial, they reviewed the progress of the official-level talks and wanted them to complete their work by the original deadline".
The leaders, who are from rival parties, have set a December 15 deadline to hammer out a working relationship to improve their uneasy cohabitation.
Aides on both sides were holding talks separately following the meeting of the two rival leaders, political sources said.
Yesterady's top-level meet was arranged by the four-member panel appointed by the two leaders to suggest ways to ease the tension.
The political impasse has seen the Colombo Stock Exchange slide steadily as investors worry about prospects of a snap poll.
Highly placed sources close to both sides say they could not rule out a dissolution of parliament anytime after voting on the national budget on December 18.
The election prospect re-emerged after the premier's rejection last week of a compromise offered by the president to share defence responsibilities and expand the negotiating process with Tiger rebels to include more parties.
The offer, contained in a document leaked by Kumaratunga's office, came after the Tamil Tigers warned on November 27 that failure to resolve the ethnic conflict would force the guerrillas to secede.
Norway on November 14 suspended its mediation role between the government and the rebels, saying there was no clarity on who was in charge in Colombo.
Kumaratunga has been a past critic of Oslo's diplomacy to end three decades of ethnic bloodshed that has claimed more than 60 000 lives. – Sapa-AFP.
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