CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuelans rushed to withdraw money from banks on Tuesday fearing food and gasoline shortages as a nine-day-old strike by the opposition cut the country's oil output to less than a third of normal.

Hardening previous demands, foes of leftist President Hugo Chavez called for his immediate resignation or elections in the world's No. 5 oil exporter, while long lines grew around major banks in Caracas, snarling traffic in some streets.

Thousands of opposition protesters, many waving flags and anti-government banners, marched around a Caracas military air base to back the resignation demand.

The shutdown has crippled the oil industry, the lifeblood of the Venezuelan economy. The state oil firm PDVSA said crude production crashed below 1 million barrels per day, less than a third of daily output before the strike began last week.

It was also starting to hit other major industries and stirred fears among the population of food and gasoline shortages and possible street violence.

Opposition leaders accuse Chavez of trying to install Cuban-style communism in the oil-rich nation.

The outspoken president says he enjoys the support of most poor Venezuelans and dismisses the opposition as "fascists and coup-plotters." Chavez, who survived a brief coup in April, has used troops to keep gasoline deliveries running.

Staff at major Caracas banks struggled to cope Tuesday with a flood of withdrawals by customers worried that food and gasoline supplies could dry up if the stoppage continued.

"People want their money in their hands," biologist Constanza Quaggiotto told Reuters as she waited in a long line of anxious customers outside a bank in eastern Caracas.

Shoppers were also stocking up on canned goods in supermarkets where supplies were thinning out on some shelves.

"It's nine days now. I don't know if we can hold out. I'm worried about violence," Engineer Carmen Melendez said.

???? Non-Oil Industries Affected ???? At one bank branch, managers restricted the size of withdrawals. "We're snowed under," an executive said.

In a sign the strike was affecting non-oil industries as well, Venezuela's biggest aluminum smelter, Venalum, said it would have to cut output and the country's largest steel maker was running at 60-percent capacity because their gas supplies were being hit by the shutdown.

Opposition leaders, who had previously pressed Chavez to agree to a nonbinding referendum on his rule in February, said on Tuesday they were demanding the president quit immediately.

"The government can't handle this crisis. We need a new government and they should convince the president to quit," anti-Chavez union boss Manuel Cova said, adding that the only alternative would be elections in the first quarter of 2003.

Fresh talks Tuesday between government and opposition negotiators, chaired by Organization of American States Secretary General Cesar Gaviria, made little progress on the key issue of the timing of elections, Gaviria said.

Fears of street violence, already high after the fatal shooting of three anti-government protesters on Friday, swept the capital again on Tuesday after angry crowds of pro-Chavez supporters besieged private TV stations in Caracas overnight to protest against what they said was biased coverage.

At least one provincial TV station was ransacked by pro-government militants.