India wants to maintain its pre-eminent position in S. Asia - official

NEW DELHI, March 26 (KUNA) -- India Wednesday expressed concern over procurement of arms by Sri Lanka from foreign powers and said that this could compromise India's pre-eminent position in the region."We have to ensure that India's pre-eminent position in the region is not compromised by Sri Lanka seeking arms from elsewhere," India's National Security Advisor M K Narayanan said while delivering a lecture on "Managing India's National Security and Building a Consensus for the 21st Century", here tonight."We are facing a situation where the ceasefire in Sri Lanka could collapse. This could lead to a ."India wants Sri Lanka to treat its large Tamil population with dignity. But the Sri Lankan government would seem to have the single objective of a military victory against the LTTE without any devolution of power," Narayanan said. (end) dr.bs KUNA 262345 Mar 08NNNN