The island has been jumpy since a string of suspected Tamil Tiger rebel attacks on troops brought a 2002 truce to the brink of collapse, but tensions have eased since the two sides agreed last week to hold direct talks in Switzerland.

"Due to serious security concerns arising in parliament, the house will be suspended until February 14," speaker of the house W.J.M. Lokubandara told the chamber as anti-terrorism police ushered lawmakers out of the building.

Police officials said they had found nothing in the chamber following initial checks after sniffer dogs started behaving unusually during a routine check, but they continued to search the building.

The parliament, which lies in a high security zone on the outskirts of Colombo, had been scheduled to meet on Friday, but was then not scheduled to meet again until Feb. 14.

Shortly after the chamber was cleared, Trade and Commerce Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle told Reuters he would attend the talks in Geneva, seen as crucial to head off the prospect of a slide back into a civil war that has killed more than 64,000 people since 1983.

"The cabinet have named me and two more ministers are also to be chosen," Fernandopulle, a trusted aide of President Mahinda Rajapakse, said by telephone from the parliamentary complex, where many ministers had moved from the chamber to the library or their own rooms.

"Presidential Counsellor Faizer Mustapha will also go, and someone will be named from the military," he added.

Many officials and diplomats say the talks are a last chance to avoid a return to a war that has already displaced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes and choked the potential of the island's $20 billion economy.

Meanwhile, a second group of workers from an an aid agency linked to Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers are missing, the agency said on Wednesday, a day after the rebels warned that the abductions could make talks with the government difficult.

The Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) said five employees failed to turn up for a meeting in the rebel capital of Kilinochchi that was scheduled for earlier in the week.

"We assume that they are missing, but we have no idea where they are," said TRO consultant Arjunan Ethirveerasingam.

The latest report comes after the Tigers said paramilitaries had kidnapped five other TRO staff near an army checkpoint and warned that the abductions could make it difficult for them to attend peace talks with the government this month.