COLOMBO Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga on Wednesday suspended the country's Parliament for two months in an apparent bid to save her minority government from defeat in a no-confidence vote.

Kumaratunga, whose Peoples' Alliance Coalition lost its majority in the house last month when a Muslim party defected to the opposition, also called a referendum on a new Constitution on August 21 to change the country's electoral system, a government statement said.

"Parliament was prorogued with effect from midnight July 10 until September 7," said the statement, issued after days of haggling between the government and opposition over when the house would take up the no-confidence vote.

The combined opposition has 116 seats against the government's 109 in the 225-member house, which Kumaratunga cannot dissolve until October 10, one year after the last general election.

At least two parties which can tip the balance in the house have yet to announce how they will vote on the no-confidence motion.

Sri Lanka's election system is a complex mixture of proportional and electoral representation under which the party that wins the most number of constituencies is not guaranteed a majority in the house.