COLOMBO, Jan 13: Sri Lanka's president on Tuesday admitted holding an undisclosed swearing-in ceremony to extend her term in office for an extra year, deepening political woes which have plunged the country into uncertainty.

President Chandrika Kumaratunga told a state television interview that her term will now end in 2006, although the country had been told at the time of her investiture in 1999 that it was for a six-year term.

"It is up to me to take a decision whether I am to continue in the office of president till 2006 or not," she said, referring to media reports about a secret swearing-in ceremony.

Kumaratunga denied any "secrecy" but admitted that only the chief justice and then foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar were present at the ceremony in 2000.-AFP