Even after the end of the war two years ago, parliament has been renewing the emergency on a monthly basis.

Will take steps to lift emergency

Noting that Sri Lanka has been free of militant attacks since the defeat of the Tamil Tigers, President Rajapaksa told parliament he was satisfied there was no longer any need for the emergency regulations.

"I propose that there is no requirement to extend the emergency. We will take necessary steps to lift the emergency." The President said.

Human rights campaigners had urged the emergency’s complete scrapping and are likely to welcome the move.

The attorney-general, Mohan Peiris, told the BBC the emergency would be allowed to lapse on 9th September, “if not earlier”.

Attorney-general

He said this was a landmark change that would “make the air around us easier to breathe”. The governments of Western countries and India had been urging an end to the emergency.

Its laws have made it easy for the government to detain people on grounds of national security, on the basis of suspicion.

The attorney-general said the process of releasing some prisoners would now be speeded up. However an equally stringent Prevention of Terrorism Act will remain in place.

Prevention of Terrorism Act

In March Amnesty International (AI) said the emergency laws still allowed for people to be held in secret locations, something which the AI say, had repeatedly led to their disappearance.

However, the Prevention of Terrorism Act [PTA] is not removed.

Many detainees are kept in custody by authorities using detention orders under the PTA.

Opposition response

The opposition leader gave a cautious welcome to president's pledge.

"I expect this to be a beginning. It came because of war. We called for this a year ago. We are happy that this has been lifted even though it is late". Said Ranil Wickramasinghe.

Emergency can be lifted by a majority vote in parliament.