Sri Lanka's largest Tamil party Tuesday endorsed the main opposition candidate in next week's election, accusing President Mahinda Rajapakse of failing to deliver reconciliation after the country's ethnic war.

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) said it would work to defeat Rajapakse, who crushed separatist Tamil rebels in a 2009 offensive that sparked war crimes allegations, in the January 8 presidential election.

Sri Lanka's main Muslim party Sunday quit the government and pledged support to the opposition in a move seen as the biggest setback yet to President Mahinda Rajapakse's re-election bid.

The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress leader Rauf Hakeem also announced his own resignation as justice minister and said he would now work for the victory of Maithripala Sirisena, the opposition candidate in the January 8 election.

Floods and mudslides triggered by heavy rain have killed at least 14 people in Sri Lanka and driven 80,000 from their homes, police and officials said Friday, as the country marked the 10th anniversary of the tsunami.

Police said at least 10 people were killed in mudslides in the central region where 38 people lost their lives in a similar disaster in late October.

Prayers, tears and solemn visits to mass graves marked the start of commemorations Friday across tsunami-hit nations for the 220,000 people who perished when giant waves decimated coastal areas of the Indian Ocean a decade ago.

On December 26, 2004 a 9.3-magnitude earthquake off Indonesia's western tip generated a series of massive waves that pummeled the coastline of 14 countries as far apart as Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Somalia.

Sri Lanka's president, under pressure from his main opponent in upcoming elections, on Tuesday promised a judicial inquiry into allegations that his troops killed thousands of Tamil civilians at the end of the civil war.

But President Mahinda Rajapakse reiterated that he would not cooperate with a U.N.-mandated investigation into the government's 2009 crushing of the Tamil Tiger rebellion.

Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse suffered a setback to his re-election hopes Monday when a key minister and his minority Muslim party quit the coalition government.

Industry and Commerce Minister Rishad Bathiudeen said he was switching allegiance to Maithripala Sirisena, the main opposition candidate seeking to topple Rajapakse in a January 8 election.

Sri Lanka's main opposition Friday promised to address international concerns over war crimes and normalize relations with regional superpower India and Western nations if they won January presidential polls.

Candidate Maithripala Sirisena said he would also negotiate with the European Union to win back tariff concessions that were withdrawn four years ago after Colombo refused to bring about democratic reforms.

Sri Lanka's military Thursday rejected opposition allegations that it had deployed troops to campaign for President Mahinda Rajapakse's re-election.

Military spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya denied opposition claims that soldiers were distributing material in support of the President who is seeking an unprecedented third term at the January 8 elections.

A Sri Lankan military transport aircraft crashed near the capital Colombo on Friday killing four people on board and injuring another crew member, police said.

The Antonov AN-32 aircraft slammed into a rubber plantation in the suburb of Athurugiriya in bad weather and burst into flames, police spokesman Ajith Rohana said.

The United States embassy in Sri Lanka denied on Saturday it was "pumping money" into the country to topple President Mahinda Rajapakse after the allegations were leveled by a minster.

Resettlement minister Gunaratne Weerakoon accused U.S. envoy Michele Sison of seeking to fund opposition forces in the election campaign in order to oust Rajapakse who is seeking an unprecedented third term in next month's elections.