COLOMBO, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Royal Norwegian embassy in Sri Lanka Saturday denied that it was involved in a scandal to fund a government parliamentarian's switching sides to support the main opposition challenger in Jan. 26 presidential election.

    "The accusation is untrue and totally unacceptable. Norway has never -- and will never -- interfere in an election in another country," a Norwegian embassy statement said.

    The National Freedom Front (NFF), a government ally leader Wimal Weerawansa said that Norway had provided a large amount of money to engineer the defection of his colleague M J Muzzamil to the camp of the former Army Chief General Sarath Fonseka.

    NFF, a breakaway of the third largest party the JVP or the People's Liberation Front is a virulent critic of Norway's facilitation of peace negotiations with the former Tami Tiger rebels.

    They branded the Oslo-backed 2002 peace accord with the government and rebels as a sell-out.