NEW DELHI -- India's Supreme Court on Wednesday barred hardline Hindus from holding special prayers at the flashpoint holy town of Ayodhya, saying even a symbolic ceremony could further inflame Hindu-Muslim tensions, Reuters reported.

But a religious clash that has claimed more than 700 lives since February 27 looked as though it was rolling into a political crisis after the government made a last-minute plea to the court to allow the prayers to go ahead.

Coalition allies of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) called the plea by the government's attorney general objectionable, while opposition lawmakers said Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had betrayed the country.

India's Lower House of Parliament was suspended amid uproar after opposition lawmakers demanded an explanation from the prime minister on an explosive row over a place of worship.

Supreme Court Justice B.N. Kripal said that no religious activity should be allowed on land around the site at Ayodhya where a mosque was razed in 1992 until an eventual court ruling on whether the land should be given to Muslims or Hindus.

"No religious activity of any kind, whether it is symbolic or actual...shall be permitted or allowed to take place," the judge told a packed courtroom after a 90-minute hearing.

The three-judge bench rejected arguments made by Attorney General Soli Sorabjee that Hindus be allowed to hold a symbolic prayer ceremony, or "Puja", on Friday.

"If you allow Puja, will you allow Namaz (Muslim Prayers) tomorrow on that land? Are you not escalating the situation?" Kripal asked the attorney general.

The BJP had come under intense pressure from its traditional hardline Hindu supporters to allow some form of prayer ceremony.

And though senior ministers said the verdict ruling against the ceremony would be enforced, the attorney general's court plea outraged coalition partners who complained they had not been consulted.

The coalition partners are crucial to keeping the BJP in power.

Yerran Naidu, leader of the regional Telugu Desam Party, described the attorney general's plea as objectionable.

Mamata Banerjee, leader of the Trinamool Congress, said the BJP's allies would discuss together their next course of action.

The ceremony was opposed by Muslims, and the BJP's secular coalition partners, amid fears that a prayer ceremony would be a prelude to building a temple on the site of the mosque, whose demolition triggered nationwide riots in which 3,000 died.