The United National Party (UNP) , Sri Lanka's main opposition, feels that India should underwrite the final settlement of the ethnic problem in the island country. "It is up to India to decide what role it should play in the peace process here. It should playa role that it is most comfortable with. But still, India will have to be the guarantor of the final settlement," said Milinda Moragoda, foreign and economic policy advisor and a close confidant of UNP chief Ranil Wickremesinghe. Speaking to Hindustan Times on the eve of Wickremesinghe's departure for New Delhi for a two-day official visit, Moragoda said that India had fully supported the Wickremesinghe government's peace initiatives between December 2001 and April 2004. "India was an anchor, a guide, mentor and a safety net," he said. The United States had also recognised India's pre-eminent position in this matter, and fully backed Colombo's policy of consulting New Delhi and taking it into confidence in any matter relating to the peace process, he said: It was under the Prime Ministership of Wickremesinghe that Sri Lanka mooted and pressed for a Defense Cooperation Agreement with India. On its part, the Indian government, then under AB Vajpayee, agreed to sign such an agreement "at the earliest". During his visit to New Delhi Wickremesinghe would brief the new Manmohan Singh government about UNP's stand on the peace process and fathom the mind of the new Indian leadership on various issue, including the peace process. On the UNP's stand on the controversial LTTE proposal for an Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) in the predominantly Tamil North Eastern Province, Moragoda said that there was nothing wrong in starting talks on the basis of the ISGA proposal, so long as the tallks took place within the parameters set by the Oslo and Tokyo international conferences on Sri Lanka. "The Oslo conference, in which the LTT was a participant, had called for a federal solution within a united Sri Lanka. The Tokyo conference, which the LTTE did not attend, had also said the same thing, though with more details." "At Oslo, the LTTE had agreed to explore a federal solution within Sri Lanka. It has also said that its proposal for an ISGA is negotiable." "Our view is that anything can be discussed. So long as the talks take place within the parameters set by the Oslo and Tokyo Declarations," Moragoda said. (Hindustan Times).