Teachers in Romania have begun a one-day strike in protest at cuts in the education budget and continuing low pay in the profession.

Correspondents believe that up to two-hundred-thousand teachers stayed away from their classrooms, affecting some four-million students.

Talks on Monday, between the Prime Minister, Radu Vasile, and teachers' leaders, failed to break the deadlock.

Mr Vasile is said to have told them that no extra funds could be found.