Several thousand miners in the Jiu valley of southern Romania have gone on strike in protest over pit closures.

The miners have put forward thirty demands and have threatened to march on the capital Bucharest.

The Industry Minister, Radu Berceanu, today rejected all their demands and the leader of the governing Christian-Democratic party, Ion Diaconescu, said the government would deploy the police and army to maintain order if necessary.

A miners' strike seven years ago led to the resignation of the government of the then prime minister, Petre Roman.

But the BBC eastern Europe analyst says that, this time, they're unlikely to secure sustained public support for their demands -- half the country's miners have already accepted government redundancy terms.