BEIJING - MORE than 1,000 workers on Friday began a march towards Beijing in protest over job losses at a textile factory in the north of China, state media and an employee said.

Demonstrators travelling by bicycle and on foot are attempting to make the 140-kilometre journey from Baoding in Hebei province to the Chinese capital to present a petition to the government, Xinhua said, quoting a protestor who refused to be named.

The business, which employs around 4,000 people, has been closed for a week, one worker, who was not taking part in the march, told AFP by telephone.

'We are very unhappy, very angry, because the severance pay offered is not satisfactory,' said the worker, who declined to give her name.

Local government officials and police met the protestors in a bid to persuade them to return home, Xinhua said, adding that the march had continued.

There had been no violence, said the report, quoting an unnamed local offical.

The worker told AFP that marchers had been halted around 50km from Baoding.

Officials and police in the city contacted by telephone told AFP they were unaware of the protest.

A number of factories in China's export-dependant economy have closed down or have reduced their capacity as demand for their goods dries up around the world.

The huge numbers of often migrant workers who are affected by the closures are a source of disquiet for China's communist government, which fears social unrest as the once blistering pace of the country's economic growth slows. -- AFP