Tom Slater, a spokesman for the state health department, said conclusive test results may not be available until Tuesday.

Postal Inspector Tony Esposito would not give details of where the samples were taken, saying only that they were "along the path letters travel through the mechanized equipment."

Postal worker Brendan Sheehan said samples were taken from machines and work surfaces in several areas.

None of the samples taken from the building's public areas were contaminated, officials have said.

The facility processed at least three anthrax-laced letters addressed to NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and the New York Post.

The work came as employees at the Hamilton facility were called in by the hundreds Sunday for anthrax testing and to fill out questionnaires on their whereabouts and work assignments on the days that anthrax-tainted letters may have come through.

"They told me to come down to get tested, to find out where I work in the building," said Sheehan, who repairs mail-processing machinery. "They are trying to determine a pattern as to where that letter was."

Two Trenton-area postal workers have confirmed cases of skin anthrax, and Esposito has said he's almost certain tests on a maintenance worker will come back positive. Anthrax skin infections are less dangerous than the inhaled form of the disease.

Many postal workers also went to a Hamilton hospital on Sunday to pick up free prescriptions of Cipro, an antibiotic effective in eradicating anthrax bacteria to prevent rashes or sickness.

The Hamilton post office has been closed since Thursday, when it was announced that a New Jersey mail carrier had skin anthrax.

Health officials also said they would bring in a contractor to clean the building _ a process Bresnitz said could take a month.

All mail will be removed from the building, sterilized and delivered, Bresnitz said.

On Sunday, preliminary results on 19 samples taken from the West Trenton post office in Ewing where one postal worker with anthrax works came back negative for anthrax. The facility is a small office that feeds mail into the regional facility.

The West Trenton office has been closed to the public since Friday.