Paris - Up to 3 million people took to the streets of cities throughout France on Thursday to protest the economic policies of President Nicolas Sarkozy, CFDT trade union head Francois Chereque said.

The largest-ever public outcry against Sarkozy since he came to office was accompanied by a general strike in which workers from both the private and public sectors walked off their jobs for the day.

Union officials said that more than 350,000 people demonstrated in Paris, while 300,000 protested in the southern port city of Marseille.

Police estimates were significantly lower. According to their official count, only 1.2 million people demonstrated on Thursday.

The head of the powerful CGT union, Bernard Thibault told RTL radio that the aim of the national job action was to "force a reconsideration of (Sarkozy's) economic and social views."

"The president cannot not listen to us," Thibault said.

The second nationwide job action against Sarkozy's policies actually began late Wednesday when employees of the national rail network SNCF and the French oil giant Total walked off their jobs.

The SNCF said that only about half of all scheduled long-distance and regional trains on average were operating and that about 36 per cent of its employees were not at their jobs on Thursday.

In addition, public transport in numerous cities was disrupted to varying degree. However, bus and metro service in Paris was near normal, while air traffic was only slightly affected.

Most schools shut down on Thursday, as unions said that up to 60 per cent of all primary and secondary school teachers would be striking. The Education Ministry put the figure of striking teachers at 30 per cent.

On the first national labour action of the year, on January 29, 2.5 million people had demonstrated against the government.

Those protests had impressed Sarkozy, who shortly thereafter announced aid in the form of tax relief and other measures for low-income families worth 2.6 billion euros (3.4 billion dollars).

There will be no such response this time, Prime Minister Francois Fillon said, noting that because of its bail-out packages for the French banking and car manufacture sectors the government could not afford to incur any more debt. (dpa)