Lanka's war budget approved despite defections

Sri Lanka's shaky coalition government on Friday won parliamentary approval for the island's biggest ever war budget, despite a series of defections to the opposition.
Parliament voted 114 to 67 in favour of the 2008 budget unveiled last month by President Mahinda Rajapakse, and which has allocated 166.44 billion rupees (1.51 billion dollars) for defence amid an upsurge in fighting with Tamil Tiger rebels.
Prior to the vote, there were anxious moments in the 225-member assembly when national heritage minister Anura Bandaranaike crossed the floor of the house.
"Minister Bandaranaike was unhappy with the government's handling of the economy as well as the peace process," a source close to Bandaranaike said.
The defection came two days after a similar move by four coalition members, and further trimmed what is on paper a slender majority for the rainbow coalition.
The 2008 budget raises the country's defence spending to just under a fifth of total government expenditure, mainly to battle the separatist Tamil Tiger guerrillas.
Fighting between troops and rebels has escalated in recent months in the 35-year-old conflict, with both sides distancing themselves from a peace process brokered by Norway.
The government insists it is working on a political package aimed at addressing the demands of ethnic Tamils, but at the same time says it wants to totally "eliminate" the rebels and seize their mini-state in the north.