Dhaka: Protesters demanding electoral reforms clashed with police near election offices yesterday, as Bangladesh's interim government sought talks with political parties to end a crisis over next month's polls.

Riot police stopped supporters of a 14-party alliance from marching on election offices in several towns and cities outside the capital, forcing the protesters to stage rallies behind barricades, the ATN Bangla television network said.

Stray clashes between police and protesters ensued in at least three places, the network said. But soldiers, who had been ordered on to the streets following recent violent political protests, did not intervene.

The protesters have demanded changes in the Election Commission, including the removal of two commissioners they say favour former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia.

Meanwhile, Election Commission official Abdur Rashid Sarker said yesterday that the European Union plans to send about 160 observers to monitor the polls.

More than 400 international observers, including about 70 from the United States, were expected to arrive in phases to monitor the elections, he added.

About 10 people were hurt when police used batons to quell stone-throwing protesters near the election office in Sylhet city, about 190 kilometres northeast of the capital, Dhaka, ATN Bangla said.

Similar clashes were also reported in Gazipur and Dhamrai towns near Dhaka, but no one was hurt, it said.

Tensions have been high since interim leader President Iajuddin Ahmad on Saturday deployed 17,000 soldiers across Bangladesh's towns and cities to keep the peace.

Government adviser Shafiqul Huq Chowdhury said the troops will not directly enforce law and order, but will remain on standby to aid the police and paramilitary forces.

After meeting late on Wednesday to discuss next month's polls, government advisers decided to seek talks with the alliance to discuss its demands.

"The alliance has said they will come to the polls if proposed changes are made," Chowdhury said. He said the government was hopeful it could resolve the outstanding issues "in two or three days". The alliance, led by ex-Prime Minister Shaikh Hasina, also wants the election date January 23 to be postponed further.

Advisers were also expected to hold talks with the alliance's main rivals, a four-party coalition led by Zia which wants the commissioners and the poll date to remain as they are.

Martyrs day observed amid political unrest

Thousands of Bangladeshis gathered yesterday at a memorial for intellectuals and professionals killed during the independence war but the country was focused on its present day strife ahead of elections next month.

Bangladesh marks the day to remember hundreds of teachers, doctors, engineers and artists gunned down or bayoneted to death by the Pakistani army in 1971 just two days before former East Pakistan won a final victory in the nine-month war.

Political rivals Begum Khaleda Zia and Shaikh Hasina separately laid wreaths at the memorial in Dhaka early yesterday, keeping alive their decade-old animosity.

The two women, who alternated as prime ministers of the impoverished country for the last 15 years, have not spoken to each other for more than a decade and are now locked in a tense battle for power in parliamentary elections set for January 23.

"They have put the country across an unsurmountable political divide. They even don't hesitate to demonstrate this at sad occasions like the Martyred Intellectuals Day," said Taslimul Haque, a government official. Hasina's Awami League alliance launched a siege of election offices across the country yesterday in the latest bid to force the removal of election officials she accuses of a bias towards Khaleda and her Bangladesh Nationalist Party.