Officers with riot helmets, batons and teargas canisters manned a square opposite parliament which has been the venue of several demonstrations in recent years. A truckload of police with riot gear patrolled the area.

Several youths loyal to Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF and used to intimidate workers in previous protests could be seen on the main road to parliament. Police barred motorists from driving through the area.

Police fearing the action could turn into a violent protest against the government banned the midday (10.00 GMT) march.

But the umbrella Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has vowed to press on with the march to protest against poor wages and high taxes and to demand that workers have access to anti-retroviral drugs to combat rampant HIV/AIDS

<B>AUSTRALIA.“CROCOSEUM”tribute set for Irwin. </B>A public memorial service for Australian naturalist Steve Irwin will be held at Australia Zoo in Queensland next Wednesday. Irwin’s widow, Terri, said the ceremony would be held in the zoo’s “Crocoseum”.

The TV personality known as the Crocodile Hunter was killed when a stingray’s barb stabbed Irwin in the chest while he was diving. Since then, 10 stingrays have been found mutilated on Queensland beaches in apparent revenge attacks.

While it is not certain that the incidents were connected to Irwin’s death, Michael Hornby, a friend of the late naturalist, said such killings would be “the last thing Steve would want”.

<B>RAMALLAH. Palestinian firms give food coupons to govt workers. </B>Two Palestinian firms began handing out food coupons to tens of thousands of unpaid government workers yesterday, underscoring the dire economic situation facing the Hamas-led administration.

The government has been unable to pay full wages to 165,000 employees since March after the West imposed an aid embargo over Hamas’s refusal to recognise Israel and renounce violence.

Israel has also been withholding some $55 million in tax and customs revenues collected on behalf of the Palestinians each month.

Distribution of the coupons comes after Prime minister Ismail Haniyeh of the Hamas Islamist movement and President Mahmoud Abbas reached a deal this week on forming a unity government to try to lift the sanctions.

The coupons, to be distributed over the coming days, are worth 500 shekels ($114) each and are being given to more than 40,000 lowly paid government workers.

Some 9,000 families of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails who normally receive stipends from the government will also get coupons. The total cost is $5.7 million.

<B> DAMASCUS. Fourth attacker on US embassy in Syria dies .</B> A fourth man who took part in Tuesday’s attack on the US embassy in Damascus has died of his wounds, the official Syrian news agency said yesterday.

The four men who carried out the attack in the centre of the Syrian capital were all Syrians, SANA agency said. “The fourth terrorist died from severe wounds. He could not be interrogated. All four carried Syrian nationality,” the agency said.

No more details were immediately available. Officials say privately the attackers are suspected to have been Islamist militants.

Syrian security forces killed three of the four men who tried to blow up the embassy in Damascus on Tuesday but failed. A Syrian guard was also killed and 13 people werewounded. No US diplomats were hurt.

<B>DIPLOMACY. Bush meets with French presidential hopeful.</B> President George W. Bush, who has had a tense relationship with French President Jacques Chirac, met on Tuesday with the front-runner to succeed him, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy.

Sarkozy, known for his pro-American views, is visiting Washington and New York during the commemoration of the September 11 hijacked plane attacks against the United States. Sarkozy, the top security official in France, has warned that his country is just as vulnerable as the United States to terrorism.

Bush joined in as Sarkozy was meeting with White House National Security Stephen Hadley and they talked for about 25 minutes, said Frederick Jones, a spokesman for Hadley.“The president thanked the minister for France’s strong support for efforts to combat terrorism,” Jones said. “They also discussed the importance of US-French cooperation in addressing common global challenges.”

Bush’s ties with Chirac soured over France’s opposition in 2003 to the US-led invasion of Top of Form Bottom of Form Iraq. Some of Sarkozy’s detractors have criticized his close ties to the United States

<B>VIENNA. Iran atom talks set today. </B>The EU will resume crunch talks with Iran over its disputed nuclear work today, officials said, as world powers at an atomic watchdog meeting remained divided over whether to crack down on Tehran.

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana was likely to try to pin down Iranian negotiator Ali Larijani on what EU diplomats said was a tentative offer from him to consider temporarily halting enrichment of uranium for nuclear fuel.

The United States, Iran’s arch-adversary and spearheading a campaign to draw up punitive UN sanctions against Tehran over suspicions it is secretly trying to build atom bombs, has said it has no knowledge of any such offer.