Colombo, Sept. 3 (PTI): Sri Lanka’s Freedom Alliance government today secured a simple majority after the eight-member Ceylon Workers’ Congress (CWC), an Indian-origin party, decided to support it.

“We have decided to unconditionally support the government,” CWC leader Armuagam Thondaman said.

With the support of eight CWC members, President Chandrika Kumaratunga's Marxist-backed Freedom Alliance has 115 seats in the 225-member legislature.

The CWC draws its support from Tamils of Indian origin who are concentrated in the tea plantations.

Thondaman hoped the government would now be able to carry forward its legislative programme as well as the stalled peace process.

He said the party wants the government to start negotiations with the LTTE based on the Tigers’ interim self governing authority proposal unveiled in October last year.

Thondaman said his late grandfather who had been in the governments of both the main political parties had wanted to give an interim council to the Tigers for five years and he was only building on that proposal.