Participants in the rally, organised by three trade unions active in Brodosplit, said they were being denied their constitutional right to work by not being allowed to negotiate new contracts for the construction of ships.

Around 3,000 workers set out from the shipyard around 11 am, walking through the streets of Split where they were joined by some 1,000 residents.

The protesters were also joined by representatives of the 3. Maj, Brodotrogir and Kraljevica shipyards.

"We want the government to know that we only want to work and live by our work. Those who cannot save out shipyard should leave..." the leader of the Independent Workers Union in Brodosplit, Zvonko Segvic, said.

He said that government officials who agreed in Brussels that the Croatian shipyards would not sign new contracts for the construction of ships until programmes for their restructuring were approved were violating Croatian laws and the constitutional provision on the right to work.

The leader of the Metal Workers' Union, Vedran Dragicevic, said that Brodoplit workers wanted normal work and pay.

The government must not give guarantees to the shipyards until the European Commission approves programmes for their restructuring, which is a precondition for their privatisation.

Officials of the Market Competition Agency (AZTN), which also must approve the restructuring programmes, said at a briefing on Tuesday that Croatia had adopted regulations under which it was to have stopped four and a half years ago the practice of giving government guarantees to the state-owned shipyards for contracts on new ships.