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DHAKA, Monday (Reuters) Bangladesh Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia urged her political opponents not to resort to strikes and acts of terror which she said had hurt the country's image overseas.

"Desist from acts of terrorism, stop calling frequent hartals (strikes) and call off your smear campaign trying to tarnish Bangladesh's image in the world," the prime minister said at a businessmen's rally in the capital Dhaka.

According to police and newspapers, at least 12 people are killed every day on average across the country, almost half that number in Dhaka, by gun-carrying criminals, some with political backers. Among those gunned down in the capital over the past week were two student leaders, one each from Khaleda's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the main opposition Awami League.

Khaleda lashed out at a half-day strike called by student members of opposition leader Sheikh Hasina's Awami League on June 19, when Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell were in Dhaka.

U.S. State Department officials told reporters accompanying Powell during his brief visit that he had cancelled a meeting with Hasina because she refused to call off the strike.

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