KATHMANDU: Protesters demanding the restoration of democracy in Nepal tried on Friday to march to the main palace of King Gyanendra but were forced back by baton-wielding police in skirmishes that injured at least 54 people, witnesses and police said. Police hinted the violence outside the Narayanhiti Palace could mark a new phase in the months of anti-monarchy protests which had just a day earlier looked on the verge of fizzling out. "If the situation continues to deteriorate, we may be forced to impose a curfew in Kathmandu," a police official said. Tens of thousands of protesters had gathered on Friday for the second straight day in central Ratna Park where a barricade stopped them from moving within 500 meters of the palace. The standoff turned violent when protesters began throwing stones at police and tried to tear down a barbed-wire fence set up to stop them, witnesses said.

"When they moved towards the restricted area, the security and riot police started using water cannons and charged with batons to disperse the protesters," said Pramod Mishra, one of the demonstrators. King Gyanendra was safely away from the demonstration, touring villages in western Nepal that have suffered from a Maoist rebellion aimed at overthrowing the monarchy.

Krishna Gopal Shrestha, the main organiser of the protest, which was not connected to the Maoists, said 32 demonstrators were taken to hospital for treatment, mostly with head injuries from batons. Police declined comment on the number of protesters who were injured but stones hurt said 22 policemen. Home ministry spokesman Gopendra Bahadur Pandey said troops had no choice but to use force because the demonstrators "broke orders that prohibited demonstrations in the area."

The kingdom’s largest party, the Nepali Congress, said one of its activists, Baliram Jha, was in serious condition after being hit by police fire. Shrestha said other demonstrators who suffered injuries included Ram Chandra Paudel, a former deputy prime minister, and Ram Sharan Mahat, a former finance minister. Leaders of Nepal’s main political parties have organised months of demonstrations with little effect on King Gyanendra.

On Thursday, protest organisers had backed down on threats to spend the night camped out in front of the tightly guarded palace. But after the violence, the party leaders called for a full day of anti-monarchy protests on Saturday. The king, who is officially a constitutional monarch, dismissed the elected government in October 2002 accusing it of incompetence in tackling the Maoist insurgency that has claimed more than 9,500 lives in eight years.

He said on Sunday that delayed elections would be held by mid-April 2005, but the promise did not reassure leaders from the sacked parliament who accused him of plotting to rig the vote.

"We don’t accept the autocratic king. We want our democratic rights back and an all-party government formed to hold the national elections," said Madhav Kumar Nepal, the consensus prime ministerial candidate of the opposition. "We want our protests to be violence-free, but any harsh actions by the security forces could make us lose our patience," he said.