Tens of thousands of people in the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico have joined a march calling on the United States not to resume military exercises on the neighbouring island of Vieques.

Exercises on the island - central to US Navy training for more than 50 years - were suspended in April after a civilian was accidentally killed.

The protest, organised by church leaders, was in response to an agreement reached last month between the US and Puerto Rico to allow limited training on Vieques to resume.

Carrying white flags and shouting "Peace in Vieques", the marchers gathered in a baseball Stadium in the capital, San Juan, where Catholic Bishop Alvaro Corrada del Rio, whose diocese includes Vieques, prayed for the end "of this culture of death and lies".

Vote

Governor Pedro Rossello and US President Bill Clinton agreed this year to keep the navy in Vieques until at least 2001, when a vote would be held for the island's 9,400 residents.

But dozens of protesters have been illegally camped out on navy-owned beaches near the target range. The navy owns two-thirds of the 52 sq mile (134.7 sq km) island.

Mr Clinton has said he will ask Congress for $90m in aid to Vieques for housing and infrastructure improvements if they vote to let the navy resume full-scale training.