A cabinet minister in the Sri Lankan government, who had opposed President Chandrika Kumaratunga's proposed post-tsunami relief deal with the rebel Tamil Tigers, has resigned, reports Xinhua.

Kumaratunga has accepted Minister of Ports and Aviation and Minister of Information and Media Samaraweera's request to release him from the latter portfolio due to his busy schedule, the official Daily News reported Thursday. 

However, he would continue as Minister of Ports and Aviation, it said.
The information department said Samaraweera had made the request June 6.

Samaraweera, a close confidant of Kumaratunga, had differed with her on the move to set up a joint relief mechanism with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on reconstruction effort following the Dec 26 tsunami that killed more than 30,000 people and left over a million others homeless.

International donors who pledged $2 billion in tsunami relief had urged a joint mechanism between the government and the rebels for distributing the money.

However, Samaraweera had opposed the move, saying the president should consider the unity of the ruling coalition in face of a threat from the main alliance partner, the People's Liberation Front (JVP), to walk out of the government in protest over the mechanism.

The JVP has said the rebels will use the proposed joint mechanism to achieve their goal of a separate Tamil homeland.