Colombo (AP): Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa has suspended Parliament sessions for a month, an official said on Wednesday - a move criticised by the opposition as an attempt to disrupt ongoing investigation into corruption allegations.

A decree announcing the suspension would be issued tomorrow, a government official said on condition of anonymity citing the sensitivity of the move.

He did not give a reason for the suspension.

Tissa Attanayake, the general secretary of Sri Lanka's main opposition United National Party, charged that Rajapaksa's action was an attempt to disrupt Parliamentary probe into corruption allegations against his government because all committees appointed for the purpose will be dissolved with the decree.

"There is no justification for this. We will protest against it," Attanayake said.

In 2001 then President Chandrika Kumaratunga suspended Parliament amid opposition threats to bring a no-confidence motion against her government.

However, her government lost its parliamentary majority a few months later and also lost the subsequent election.