No deal with Pak on nuclear plant: Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka on Saturday said it had no plans to build a nuclear power station with Pakistan assistance. The Minister of Power and Energy Champika Ranawaka said Sri Lanka had already entered into a joint venture with India's National Thermal Power Corporation to build a coal power plant in Sampur.

"These reports are utterly false. We have to see these reports in the background of the proposed visit to Sri Lanka by the Pakistan foreign minister", Ranawaka told reporters in Colombo.

He was reacting to certain media stories that Pakistan will assist Sri Lanka to build a nuclear station at Sampur in the eastern district of Trincomalee. Meanwhile, the external affairs ministry in Colombo on Saturday announced the indefinite postponement of the visit by Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar.

The visit was originally planned to take place between August 1 to 3.