DHAKA -- Bangladesh's main opposition party Saturday threatened further strikes if their supporters were arrested or prevented from taking part in demonstrations, amid reports that some were being rounded up.

The Awami League Party has called a nationwide general strike for Sunday to protest the recently announced budget.

The ***Prothom Alo*** daily reported Saturday that police had started rounding up opposition leaders and activists ahead of the strike.

Police told the newspaper that the arrests were aimed at preventing any law and order problems during the stoppage, which was originally called for Saturday but moved to Sunday to prevent school tests being disrupted.

A ban has also been imposed from Saturday on torch-light marches "to safeguard people's life and property," police said.

Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina Wajed told reporters: "We will no more tolerate any torture, we will extend the strike by a day or more if torture and repression on our workers are intensified." The Awami League says the 2002-2003 budget, which was proposed to Parliament last week, is "anti-poor and pro-rich".

The party has decided to end an eight-month boycott of Parliament to register their protest against the budget in Parliament.

The party, with 58 MPs, has boycotted the 300-seat Parliament since last October's general elections in which it was routed by Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's Islamic Alliance.

The Awami League says the polls were rigged, but poll monitors said it was "generally free".

The MPs, who have boycotted the chamber for 35 consecutive working days, would lose their seats if they stayed away for 90 straight days.

"We have decided to end the Parliament boycott, but it appears that a section within the ruling coalition does not want us to do so as there are many issues which will embarrass the government," Sheikh Hasina's political secretary Saber Hossain Chowdhury told AFP Saturday.

Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party also refused to take its seats when Sheikh Hasina was in power.