Angry and betrayed, Sri Lanka is now looking to External Affairs minister Jaswant Singh, who flew into Colombo today to participate in the SAARC foreign ministers meeting, to quickly resolve the bureaucratic spanner that has been thrown in the works.

``India is the big player in the region, you have conclusively established that with your nuclear tests,'' highly placed Sri Lankan sources said here, adding, ``but if you cannot keep your part of the bargain over the free trade treaty, then we're afraid the big brother will lose the small brother's respect.''

Officials in the Ministry of External Affairs also acknowledge that the treaty is fast becoming a test case of India's credentials in the region. New Delhi now wants to sign an agreement onthe same lines with Bangladesh, but if the pact with Colombo turns sour, it will have the potential of destroying India's standing in South Asia.

``If New Delhi remains intent on backtracking from the treaty, then it will be perceived by the people in Sri Lanka as if India is only interested in another Indo-Lanka accord,'' the Sri Lankan sources added. They were referring to the 1987 bilateral peacekeeping pact which was later perceived by Colombo as an attempt at keeping the island people in its place.

After years of hard work by the foreign offices on both sides to get ties back to normal, the relationship seems to be in trouble again. The rub lies in the fact that New Delhi, under pressure from its industrialists, wants to take tea and rubber out of the free trade category agreement and put it on the negative list.

What it is offering in return, to assuage the Sri Lankans, are import quotas on textiles and tea. Ministry sources here said New Delhi has told Colombo that it could export one millionpieces of garments and five million kg of tea annually to India.

``From what was proclaimed near and wide as a free trade treaty, the first in South Asia, is fast being transformed into a `quota free trade treaty,'' the Sri Lankan sources fumed.

They pointed out that when Sri Lankan president Chandrika Kumaratunga had signed the pact in December with Prime Minister Vajpayee, she had done so over the heads of the entrepreneur-government elite in Colombo. Even then Sri Lanka, whose strengths include textiles and garments, had conceded that these items would remain in the `negative list' with New Delhi.

``When Kumaratunga arrived late for appointments with your Home minister L K Advani, all of you accused her of keeping him waiting,'' the Sri Lankans pointed out. ``What kind of disrespect are you now showing to our president?''