The Paraguayan authorities have signed an agreement with peasant leaders in the north of the country to bring to an end a series of land invasions that led to violent clashes with police last weekend in which three peasants were killed.

The government promised to give land to more than two thousand peasant families and to invest in roads, schools, healthcare and electrification in the region in return for an end to land invasions.

They also agreed to release more than eighty peasants who were arrested during the clashes.

The agreement came after several days of intense negotiations. Correspondents say more than thirty peasants have been killed in the last ten years during land invasions in Paraguay, where rural poverty levels are high and land ownership is concentrated in the hands of a tiny minority.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service