Matti Vanhanen, prime minister

Matti Vanhanen, Finnish Centre party leader and the country's prime minister, and Timo Kalli, the Centre party's parliamentary group leader, have sent a statement to the justice minister saying that the president should continue to have the power to veto crisis management troop deployments, the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) reported Wednesday.

A cross-party committee led by Christoffer Taxell had proposed amending the constitution to read that Parliament and the government could decide to deploy troops with no say for the head of state.

The Centre party members of the committee - Anneli Jäätteenmäki and Hannes Manninen - had approved the committee's proposals.

Pekka Ravi, the chairman of the National Coalition party's parliamentary group, said the Centre party's apparent volte-face had come as a complete surprise, adding he would raise the issue with Mr Kalli in the afternoon.

"We at the National Coalition party were under the impression that the matter had been decided and that the decision would hold," Mr Ravi told the Finnish News Agency (STT).

"We are committed to the Taxell committee's decision and take the starting point that it will form the basis of the forthcoming solution. One suspects that the Centre party thought they were attending some kind of seminar."

The opposition Social Democrats announced after the publication of the Taxell report that the party would oppose some of the committee's proposals in plenary.

Like the Centre party ones, SDP committee members had approved proposals to reduce the president's foreign policy powers.

Eero Heinäluoma, the SDP parliamentary group leader, applauded the Centre party's move.

He added that the Centre party's new line indicated that some had been unaware of the consequences of the committee's proposals.

STT
Lehtikuva - Vesa Moilanen