Police and military officers fanned out along a key highway into Lima Sunday to prevent it from being overrun by anti-government strikers protesting in support of their employer, US mining firm Doe Run.

Interior Minister Octavio Salazar said 2,000 police officers and 500 troops will stand guard over a 10-kilometer (six-mile) stretch of Highway 20 linking Lima and La Oroya, 185 kilometers (115 miles) to the east, where Doe Run's mining facilities are located.

"We won't let them block the highway," Prime Minister Javier Velazquez told a press conference.

"We've ordered police and soldiers on the move to ensure the free flow of traffic" leading to the idled American firm.

Doe Run was shut down several months ago for failing to comply with new federal environmental rules.

Workers at the factory are planning to go on indefinite strike Monday to compel the government to push back a July 15 deadline it has imposed on Doe Run to comply with new environmental regulations.

The government has said that the company, whose smelting operations were suspended several months ago, must prove that it is in compliance with environmental laws before it will be allowed to reopen.

Velazquez said the strike by Doe Run workers is intended to "pressure the government to accept the company's conditions for resuming operations."

He accused Doe Run of resorting to "blackmail" by inciting its workers to side with the company's demand for a deadline extension so it can adapt the facility to stricter, anti-pollution regulations.

Velazquez said the government would hold Doe Run responsible "for all acts of violence that may occur" during the strike, and accused the local miners' union of supporting the US company's stance against the government.

Doe Run was privatized and sold to Doe Run in 1997 with the hope it could be converted into a clean-running facility. The smelter has provided jobs for a century to La Oroya residents — now numbering 30,000 — but has also made it one of the most polluted cities in Peru.

Doe Run also owes more than 200 million dollars in debts and back taxes and is asking for a 20 year repayment moratorium, which the government says is unacceptable.

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