Colombo: Sri Lankan parliament speaker Karu Jayasuriya warned Monday that the country's political crisis could turn into a "bloodbath" unless lawmakers were allowed to resolve a power struggle between the president and his ousted premier.

"We should settle this through parliament, but if we take it out to the streets, there will be a huge bloodbath," Jayasuriya told reporters.

He said he had urged President Maithripala Sirisena, whose sacking of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Friday unleashed the tensions, to let Wickremesinghe prove his majority on the floor of the House.

After sacking Wickremesinghe, the president appointed former strongman Mahinda Rajapakse as the prime minister, leaving the country with two people claiming to run the government.