KATHMANDU -- Some 2,000 trade union activists Sunday took to the streets of Nepal's capital Kathmandu in support of an anti-monarchy movement, witnesses said.

Members of five trade unions, including the Nepal Trade Union Congress and Nepal Trade Union Federation, paralyzed traffic for half an hour as they marched through the city shouting slogans. The five main political parties last month launched a protest campaign against King Gyanendra after he in October sacked the elected prime minister, replaced him with royalist Lokendra Bahadur Chand and indefinitely postponed elections,

Chand resigned last month saying he wanted to end the political discord and the king replaced him with political veteran Surya Bahadur Thapa, which further angered the parties.

"As a protest, laborers and workers also laid down their tools in factories in the capital Sunday," said a press release of the General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions.