A spat over whether or not a visiting European Union delegation would meet Pillaiyan, the Chief Minister of the Eastern Province, led to the delegation which was eager to visit the newly liberated province not making the trip at all.

``They were very eager to visit the East,’’ a senior minister said on condition of anonymity. ``But they didn’t make the trip because they did not want to meet the chief minister as he belonged to an armed group.’’

Government sources said there was a sharp contradiction between the stance of the visitors who did not wish to meet a chief minister belonging to an armed group while all foreign parties involved in Sri Lanka’s peace process were keenly interested in meeting with the LTTE which too was very much an armed group.