COLOMBO, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Sri Lankan government won the crucial third reading vote of its 2008 budget on Friday amidst moves by the main opposition to defeat it and force a snap parliamentary election, government and parliamentary sources said.

    President Mahinda Rajapaka's government received 114 for and 67against the budget with 38 legislators abstaining in the voting.

    The main left party, the JVP (People's Liberation Front) abstained in the voting.

    Anura Bandaranaike, the minister of National Heritage who had crossed over to the opposition before the voting, also abstained.

    The main Tamil minority political party, the Tamil National Alliance voted against the budget.

    On Nov. 19, the government won the second reading of the budget by 118 to 102 in the 225-member parliament.

    The budget was presented to parliament on Nov. 7 by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is also the island country's Finance Minister.

    The voting came at a time when the military is poised to move into the rebel controlled north and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is experiencing a severe shortage of ammunition and manpower.

    Claiming discrimination at the hands of the Sinhala majority, the LTTE has been fighting the government since the mid-1980s to establish a separate homeland for the minority Tamils in the north and east.

    More than 5,000 people have been killed in the new wave of violence since the end of 2005, making the Norwegian-brokered ceasefire agreement exists only on paper.

    According to the country's constitution, if the budget is defeated, the government is required to present another budget. If the second budget is also defeated, the parliament should be dissolved by the president.