The government and the rebels are in dispute over aid to Tamil areas

Presidential spokesman Harim Peiris denied there was any political motive in the move.

The Tamil Tigers have dismissed the initiative as "inappropriate" and a "token gesture" at a time of calamity for Tamil-speaking areas of Sri Lanka.

Latest figures say 30,882 people died in Sri Lanka, with 6,000 missing.

'Symbolic gesture'

"The president wants to undertake, care and nurture an orphan because so many children are affected and many have become orphans," Mr Peiris said.

The president believes a resumption of war is now remote

He said that President Kumaratunga, who has two grown-up children of her own, was against sending children to orphanages and wanted to adopt a Tamil girl child.

Mr Peiris told the BBC the adoption was a matter to be handled by the National Child Protection Authority, the body charged with dealing with adoptions in Sri Lanka.

Asked why the president - who is from the Sinhalese community - wanted to adopt a Tamil child, he said it was not intended as a political move in the light of the conflict on the island between the country's Sinhalese and Tamil communities.

He said it was a "symbolic gesture" to show that the president's concern for her people transcended issues of ethnicity or religion.

Mr Peiris said her decision to adopt was intended as a message not just to politicians, but to the whole country about the disproportionate effect the tsunami had had on Sri Lanka's children.

'Ploy'

Last week the Sri Lankan authorities banned the adoption of children affected by the tsunami until further notice.

The move followed concern expressed by the UN that some orphans were being targeted by criminal gangs.

There are no statistics in Sri Lanka for the number of children orphaned by the disaster. The government says it is compiling a census.

A senior Tamil Tiger spokesman, SP Thamilselvan, dismissed the president's announcement as a propaganda ploy.

We have reached a stage of irreparable damage in relationships Tamil Tiger spokesman SP Thamilselvan

He said it had been done to neutralise international criticism of the Sri Lankan government after it prevented UN Secretary General Kofi Annan from visiting tsunami-hit regions under Tiger control during a visit to the island on Sunday.

"This will not placate the Tamil people," he said.

Mr Thamilselvan said that the rift between the Tigers and the government had widened because of the tsunami.

The Tigers are also unhappy about what they see as the government's failure to provide adequate relief in areas controlled by them in the north and east.

The government says it has provided more aid to Tamil Tiger-controlled areas than to Sinhalese parts of the country.

"The Tamils thought the visit of Kofi Annan may [have] repaired the damage, help rebuild the confidence... again that did not happen," Mr Thamilselvan said.

On 30 December President Kumaratunga said the threat of a resumption of war "is remoter than on 25 December - the day before the tsunami - because the LTTE has suffered heavy casualties, if not anything else".