Sri Lanka's main ethnic Tamil party Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has, in its manifesto for the upcoming parliamentary elections, called for a federal structure as the solution to the country's ethnic problem.

The TNA, generally regarded as a proxy party of the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels, has called for an extensive power sharing arrangement in a merged northern and eastern provinces under a federal structure.

Xinhua quoting sources close to the TNA as saying this arrangement will help attract direct foreign investment to the two provinces, traditionally dominated by Tamils.

Parliamentary elections are scheduled April 8.

It will be the first parliamentary election held after the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which had been fighting for more than two decades to carve out an independent Tamil homeland in the north and east before they were crushed by the government troops in May 2009.