By Anna Horsburgh-Porter BBC correspondent in Colombo

Blows were traded in the Sri Lankan parliament on Wednesday over allegations that the president had carried a bomb in her handbag into a cabinet meeting.

Opposition MPs tried to grab the ceremonial mace

Books were thrown across the parliament floor, opposition MPs tried to grab the mace and the sitting had to be adjourned for an hour to restore order.

The affair over President Chandrika Kumaratunga's handbag began a week ago and has snowballed into increasingly bizarre claims and counter-claims between the Sri Lankan government and the opposition.

It all started when Minister of Commerce Ravi Karunanayake alleged the president had carried a handbag containing a secret video camera into a cabinet meeting on 17 July.

Mr Karunanayake said he recognised the special handbag, which he said was extremely expensive, from police documents he had seen describing clandestine recording devices.

An 'ugly brawl'

The following day the president wrote to the prime minister saying Mr Karunanayake had alleged she was carrying a bomb in her handbag, making no reference to the video camera.

She said she could no longer work with the minister for commerce and demanded his dismissal.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe tried to defuse the row before he left for the United States on an official visit.

But now that he is out of the country, Wednesday's commotion in parliament erupted without his steadying influence.

Opposition politicians arrived in the morning with placards calling Mr Karunanayake corrupt and demanding his dismissal.

Difficult cohabitation

Backbenchers on both sides started throwing books at each other.

It developed into what has been described as an ugly brawl, with the opposition trying to grab the ceremonial mace, and in the scuffle that followed an official was bruised trying to protect it.

Scenes like this are relatively rare in the Sri Lankan parliament but it is indicative of the growing tensions in the cohabitation arrangement which involves having a president from one political party and a government from another.

Although the government has responsibility for the day to day running of the country, the President has the constitutional power to dissolve the parliament after one year.

President Kumaratunga is not due to step down until December 2005.