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DHAKA, Tuesday (AFP) Thousands of police were on alert in Bangladesh's major cities Tuesday as a factory workers' union held a one-day nationwide anti-government strike to demand that shut industries be reopened.

Several hundred workers led by the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) marched through the streets of the capital Dhaka chanting anti-government slogans as police kept a close watch.

More than 4,000 police were guarding the capital, the ATN Bangladesh television network said.

The Jute-Spinning-Textile Mills Workers-Employees Action Council, which has thousands of members, called for the stoppage to push home various demands, including the reopening of closed factories.

The government has shut down about a dozen loss-making factories, including the world's largest jute mill, the Adamjee Jute Mills near Dhaka, under donor pressure to streamline the economy.

The main opposition Awami League party of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed, the Jatiya Party faction headed by deposed president Hussain Muhammad Ershad and several left-wing political parties, including the CPB, backed the strike.

The southwestern city of Khulna, where Prime Minister Khaleda Zia last week ordered three factories to be reopened after demands by workers, was quiet Tuesday with shops, mills and most offices shut amid tight security.

In the southeastern port city of Chittagong, the country's commercial hub, the streets were deserted, except for some rickshaws. Officials said activities at Chittagong port had been hampered by the strike.

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