The justice and defence ministries have failed to comply with requests by the controversial Presidential Commission on Disappearances to release a list of detainees in the custody of the government, the DailyFT reported.

In a press statement regarding an interim report it submitted to President Sirisena earlier this month, the commission said it made written requests to the Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Justice to release to the commission "names of persons who were in custody of prisons, detention camps, refugee camps, and rehabilitation centres".

“While noting with regret that such requests had not been complied with, the Commission decided to notice the respective officers to appear before the Commission in terms of the powers vested in the Commission by the Special Presidential Commission of Inquiry Act,” the report said.

Sri Lanka's President Maithripala Sirisena says it is his duty to steer the SLFP to victory at the election later this year.

"The SLFP which lost the Jan. 08 election should be geared to win elections again and it is my duty to see to it to ensure that the party will be able to do so. I have already commenced this work and worked hard since the day I assumed duties of the office of the President," President Sirisena said at an SLFP meeting in Galle.

Sri Lanka’s former president Mahinda Rajapaksa has accused Western nations of conspiring against him by backing the Buddhist nationalist organisation Bodu Bala Sena (BBS).

"Look at where the BBS travelled (Norway and the US)," said Mr Rajapaksa, speaking with AFP earlier this week. "It is clearly a (then) opposition project."

Mr Rajapaksa claims the work of the BBS subsequently lost him the Muslim vote, with Asian Mirror reporting him as saying, "I lost the election partly because minority Muslims ditched me thanks to the work of the BBS".

The BBS, accused of being behind a string of Buddhist nationalist inspired violence, had its headquarters ceremonially opened by Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the former president’s borther and then defence secretary.

The president of the United States would not be able to fulfil the large number of pledges that Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena has done, claimed a Sri Lanka government minister on Friday.

Sri Lanka’s Minister of Health and Indigenous Medicine Rajitha Senaratne made the claim as Mr Sirisena marked his first 100 days in government this week.

Mr Senaratne praised the Sri Lankan president, stating that US Secretary of State John Kerry was “amazed” to see what Mr Sirisena had achieved in government.

The Sri Lankan navy has expanded its ship maintenance facilities by building a new side slip way in Galle, reports the Ministry of Defence.

The newly constructed slip way has resulted in upgraded facilities at Galle, allowing for the ships up to 500 tons to be serviced. The project was started in 2014, under Sri Lanka’s previous government, and saw engineers of the Sri Lankan navy complete the construction.

Such facilities were only previously available at Trincomalee in the North-East.