The national Lion flag was at half mast at state buildings and radio and television played sombre music even as relief workers carried out the grim task of burying rotting corpses in mass graves along the island's devastated coast.

Private homes and cars carried white flags as a sign of mourning while de luxe hotels here cancelled all their celebrations to usher in the New Year.

President Chandrika Kumaratunga made a public appeal for common religious services at 1000 GMT and urged all places of worship to ring their bells for three minutes from 1230 GMT in commemoration of the tsunami victims.

The death toll is set to cross 29,000 with most of the 4,500 missing people likely to be declared dead "in the next few days," the president said on Thursday night after visiting survivors along the east coast.