Colombo, Feb. 8 (PTI): President Chandrika Kumaratunga dissolved parliament and called snap elections despite apprehensions by aid donors and India, a newspaper said today.

India and donors like the US, Japan and the EU were against mid-term elections that could undermine the troubled peace process, Lanka’s Sunday Times quoted diplomats as saying. Delhi’s apprehensions about possible political and economic instability in the island nation were conveyed to the President during a meeting with Indian high commissioner Nirupam Sen on Thursday, the report said.

In another twist, the Indian chief of naval staff, Admiral Madhvendra Singh, has put off his visit to Sri Lanka. Singh was due here on a four-day visit starting tomorrow. No official reason was given for the cancellation.