Sri Lanka hopes to have two hangmen ready to carry out the death penalty if it is implemented, a top prison official said on Tuesday.

Commissioner General of Prisons P.W.Kodippili told Xinhua that the interview process to recruit the hangmen was complete and the two hangmen will be selected within the next few days.

"Of the several applications we received we conducted interviews and selected 10 out of the final lot. From that we hope to select two people to appoint them as hangmen," Kodippili said.

Sri Lanka does not implement the death penalty but with over 1, 000 people on death row and an increase in crime reported over the past few years there has been strong speculation that the death penalty will be re-introduced.

"That is a policy decision and not in the hands of my department," Kodippili said when asked if the finalizing of the hangman's post will see the immediate reintroduction of the death penalty.

The government has said that the death penalty will be introduced against drug traffickers and rapists as well.

The death penalty has not been implemented in Sri Lanka since 1976 but several people have been sentenced to death by local courts even this year.

Following a murder of a judge in 2004, the country reinstated the death penalty but no president has ratified it and so the death sentence is automatically commuted to life imprisonment.