Riot police in Zimbabwe have detained around 20 people after they broke up a protest march called by trade unionists.
Hundreds of police, many armed with automatic rifles, took up positions across the capital Harare ahead of the protest, called for lunchtime today by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) ahead of the government's budget on Friday.
Unions have led protests against massive fuel-price rises as President Robert Mugabe's government wrestles with shortages of foreign exchange and domestic banknotes, huge unemployment and one of the world's highest rates of inflation.
Ahead of the planned protest, about 100 people including some in ZCTU T-shirts, gathered in one of Harare's main streets, Julius Nyerere Way. But baton-wielding police dispersed their march within just a few metres.
Witnesses said police detained around 20 people, including ZCTU Secretary-General Wellington Chibebe. Earlier ZCTU officials said two of its provincial organisers had also been arrested ahead of the march.
Mr Mugabe's opponents accuse him of economic mismanagement and blame the country's woes partly on his land reforms that saw white-owned commercial farms handed to landless blacks and violent farm occupations by Mugabe supporters.
Mr Mugabe accuses opponents at home and abroad of sabotaging the economy. Business groups have said Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa must use the budget to tackle the foreign currency shortage and rampant inflation to pull the country back from the brink of collapse.