Police in Sri Lanka are continuing to interrogate 50 suspects from the minority Tamil community who were arrested in an anti-rebel crackdown on Friday.

Jagat Jayawardena, the deputy inspector-general of police in the capital, Colombo, said over 1,200 other suspects detained in raids during an all-night curfew imposed had been released.

Life returned to normal in the capital on Saturday as banks and offices re-opened.

The 14-hour curfew was announced without warning on Thursday on state radio and television. Police said it followed reports that at least 10 suicide bombers had infiltrated the city.

The action was taken after recent suicide bomb attacks which have killed more than 30 people.

Police conducted house-to-house searches under cover of the curfew which ended on Friday afternoon.

The authorities said a total of 1,221 Tamils who were arrested on suspicion of having links with rebels were released on Friday.

Anxious parents and relatives gathered outside police stations waiting for the release of those detained.

Tamil politicians complained that the suspects had not been given proper food or water and had also been photographed, violating an earlier agreement made by the authorities.

"These people are not criminals to be treated like this," Tamil MP R Yogarajan said.

Offices, shops, banks and schools were closed as large numbers of security officials fanned out across the city searching for Tamil Tiger rebels and their supporters.

Cordons

Witnesses said hundreds of soldiers and police cordoned off select areas, asking people for their identification papers.

Those who failed to produce them were taken to the nearest police station for questioning.

The current state of emergency allows the armed forces to search houses or detain anyone on suspicion of involvement with the rebels.

It has been in force for more than two years across Sri Lanka, but parliament must reapprove it every month.

On Thursday, the government asked parliament for another extension.

Bomb plan

Prior to the curfew, police had already detained 165 Tamil men for questioning after they failed to explain their presence in the capital, officials said.

Police said they had also arrested two Tamil Tiger rebels early on Friday carrying explosives.

According to police, the rebels confessed that they intended to set off the bombs at bus stations in the Buddhist temple town of Kandy, where Sri Lanka's majority Sinhalese Buddhist believe a tooth relic of Buddha is kept.

The two rebels were arrested in the eastern Ampara district early Friday, said Assistant Police Superintendent HR Senaviratne.

On Wednesday, a suicide bomber exploded herself in front of Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike's office, killing 13 people.

Hours before the curfew was announced, a special police team arrested the bomber's parents and a sister in the eastern coastal town of Akkraipattu.

In December, the prime minister's daughter, President Chandrika Kumaratunga, was wounded in a suicide bomb attack which killed 26 people. A second bomb exploded the same day at a suburban opposition-party meeting, killing at least eight.

President Kumaratunga, targeted in the final days of her campaign for re-election as president, won a second six-year term with just over 51% of the vote.

State radio announced on Friday that a team of US experts had arrived in Colombo to help local authorities investigate the suicide bomb blast at President Kumaratunga's election rally.