Cairo - Thousands of demonstrators staged a fresh protest Monday in Egypt's Nile Delta as prosecutors questioned at least 150 people on charges of burning cars, shops and schools and injuring police a day after violent clashes, security sources said Monday.

The protestors threw stones at the car of the general prosecutor, Abdel Magid Mahmoud, who was visiting the town of Mahalla, a centre of the textile industry 100 kilometres north of Cairo, the sources said.

The demonstration comes a day after an outbreak of riots sparked by police thwarting a planned strike by textile workers to demand pay hikes.

The planned industrial action at the state-owned Misr Spinning and Weaving firm in Mahalla was going to be the main event in a day of nationwide protests over price rises and poor pay launched by Egyptian political activists.

Egypt has been hit by a wave of strikes by workers, doctors, academics and tax collectors since last year to protest price rises and inflation reaching 12 per cent.

The country's poor have been badly hit by cheap bread shortages, sparking fears of possible bread riots, a repeat of 1977 riots.

About 7,000 demonstrators clashed Sunday with police who fired tear gas and rubber bullets to break up the protest.

At least 150 people were injured, some of them policemen, and some experienced breathing problems caused by tear gas inhalation.

Protestors set ablaze two schools, shops and banks, police and witnesses said.

Elsewhere in the country, at least 200 activists from the opposition Kifaya movement and bloggers were arrested on Sunday as they took part in protests.

Thousands of anti-riot police deployed around the country thwarted planned protests.

They were helped by dusty weather and prior warnings by Egypt's Ministry of Interior threatening firm action against anyone who participated in the strike and protests.

The call for civil disobedience started by bloggers and political activists on FaceBook and other websites and was spread over last week by text message, e-mail and word of mouth.

Despite limited protests across the country, political activists claimed a victory over the government.

"With the call to strike catching on, we have managed to lay the foundation of a culture of civil disobedience in Egypt," member of parliament Hamdin Sabahi said.

Bloggers, who escaped arrest, celebrated the victory and went as far as calling for another strike on the birthday of Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak on May 4.

"We have become the biggest non-political popular movement. No political group will control us. We represent the people," a blogger wrote on FaceBook.

"God created the world in six days. We certainly will not change the country in one day. It has been a good start. God help us," another blogger said. (dpa)