MONTREAL - CIRQUE du Soleil aimed on Tuesday to reclaim its Guinness world record for the most number of people simultaneously walking on stilts, to mark its silver anniversary.

The acrobatic troupe, created in 1984 and now performing in all corners of the world, readied 900 people to stride 100 meters on 33-centimeter stilts in the streets of Montreal.

It also invited people in Fortaleza (Brazil), Las Vegas (Nevada), Lisbon, Macau (China), Nagoya (Japan), New York, Orlando (Florida) and Tokyo to join in the experience.

Cirque du Soleil set the first Guinness world record for stilt-walking with 544 employees in 2004.

Two years later, a Japanese group beat it with 614 stilt-walkers and in 2008 a Brantford, Ontario team took the title with 625.

The circus company said staff at its Montreal headquarters attended several 'training sessions' in recent weeks to get accustomed to walking on stilts in order to prepare for Tuesday's event.

The stunt harkens back to the Cirque's origins, when artistic force Gilles Ste-Croix walked 90 kilometers on stilts in 1980 to convince the Quebec government to offer him a grant to launch a stilt-walking troupe.

He hoped to show the provincial government that his project was a 'serious endeavor' and worth subsidising, said a statement from Cirque.

His non-stop elevated walk took him 22 hours and garnered him front-page newspaper coverage.

The Baie-Saint-Paul Stiltwalkers would later be renamed the High-Heels Club - a ragtag group of 20 street performers - which grew into Cirque du Soleil in 1984.

Cirque du Soleil now employs 4,000 people in 40 countries, and is presenting 19 traveling and permanent shows. -- AFP