A 17-day protest march by 12,000 Brazilian landless peasants ended in violence on Tuesday as activists fought with police and demanded faster government land resettlement to cut rural poverty. Over 50 people were injured as mounted riot police charged into demonstrators at the end of the 150-mile (238-km) march to pressure President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to meet land reform promises.

The clashes occurred as leaders of the Landless Workers Movement (MST) met with Lula and said they reached a deal to boost reform spending. Government officials denied any accord. Over 30 MST activists and 20 paramilitary police suffered bruises and broken bones after protesters tried to cross a police line at Congress. Mounted officers made repeated baton charges in the worst protest violence seen in Brasilia in years.

Police Maj. Nevitton Pereira Junior said two officers could lose their sight after being speared in the face by bamboo poles. He showed welts where he said he had been beaten. MST leaders have threatened to increase the pace of land occupations, and could drop traditional support for Lula if he fails to meet a promise to settle 430,000 families by 2006. He is nowhere near the election pledge after focusing on market-driven economic policies and big farm producers to achieve steady growth needed to cut poverty. MST leaders left the Lula meeting telling reporters he agreed to free up nearly half the land reform spending he froze in 2005, or about 700 million reais ($282 million), and hire 1300 new land reform agents to speed settlement of families.

Agrarian Reform Minister Miguel Rossetto said the meeting had been “positive” but the government had made no deal and it would give its proposals to the MST on Wednesday. MST leaders showed no sign of easing up on farm invasions that worry foreign investors and can cause political headaches for Lula as the opposition accuses him of being soft on “crime”.