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Bolivian leader in miners talks Bolivia miners call off protest
(about 4 hours later)
The Bolivian President Evo Morales is meeting representatives of miners after a mass protest in La Paz over a proposed tax rise. Bolivian miners have ended their protest in La Paz over tax increases after reaching agreement with President Evo Morales.
Parts of Bolivia's administrative capital were paralysed after more than 20,000 miners marched into the city, throwing dynamite on the way. More than 20,000 miners belonging to small co-operatives blocked the centre of the administrative capital, throwing dynamite and clashing with police.
At least two policemen were injured in clashes with miners. After six hours of talks, Mr Morales promised a fund to improve working conditions for the miners.
The protest went ahead despite a government promise to freeze the tax on small independent co-operatives. There was no agreement on a proposed tax rise which the miners oppose.
The miners want their co-operatives to be exempt from the tax increases and they are calling for the mining minister, Guillermo Dalence, to be removed from his position. Two policemen were injured on Wednesday in a second day of clashes with the miners.
The BBC's Americas editor, Will Grant, says they are likely to get most of their demands. Investment fund
Nationalisation demands Mr Morales said the agreement marked a reconciliation with the mining co-operatives, which about 55,000 of Bolivia's independent miners belong to.
President Morales wants to keep the small co-operatives on his side while still taxing the foreign energy companies, our correspondent says. "I've never thought about stamping out mining co-operatives, as some have said," he said after the long meeting with mining leaders.
Officials have said the tax increase would be directed at larger private mining companies. "This government belongs to the grassroots movements, they (mining cooperatives) have been part of this government and they have to continue," Mr Morales added.
This is the second time in two weeks that street protests in the energy sector have forced the government into talks. The president promised a $10m (£5.07m) government fund to invest in the mining co-operatives and said he would expand the area where they can mine.
Last week, protesters in the south-eastern town of Camiri occupied two oil and natural gas facilities and blockaded the road to Argentina and Paraguay. Bolivia's extensive mineral deposits are state-owned.
They were demanding that the president go even further in his nationalisation of the energy sector. The co-operatives had been staunch supporters of the left-wing president until last October when they accused Mr Morales of supporting state-employed miners in a violent dispute at the Huanuni mine in which 16 people were killed.
Bolivia's mineral exports were worth more than $1bn (£507m) last year, but the government says it only collected $45.5m in taxes from the mining sector. It is hoping to recoup $80m in mining taxes. Even before the protest began on Tuesday, the government went back on its plan to raise taxes on the independent miners.
Some 50,000 miners are members of co-operatives. Last year, a group of them were involved in deadly clashes with miners from the state sector over control of a pewter mine. Instead, officials said the tax increase would be directed at larger private mining companies.
President Morales wants to keep the small co-operatives on his side while still taxing the foreign energy companies, the BBC's Americas editor Will Grant says.
Bolivia's mineral exports were worth more than $1bn last year, but the government says it only collected $45.5m in taxes from the mining sector.
It is hoping to raise that to at least $200m this year.