Several thousand Vojvodina farmers on June 2 continued for the fourth consecutive day to block major roads in the province, protesting against the government's subsidies for agriculture, which have been granted only to those with up to 30 hectares of land.

The farmers demand that subsidies be granted to all, while the government said that that would seriously affect the agriculture budget.

"The government considers that the fulfillment of the farmers' demand would disrupt the milk and meat market for a long time," the government's media officer Milivoje Mihajlovic told a news conference on June 2.

In Pancevo, some 1,000 tractors and farmers are still blocking the exit roads towards Belgrade, allowing passage only to ambulances and vehicles with children.

According to the Pancevac Association of Farmers, the blockade will continue as they do not accept the agreement reached between the Association of Farmers and the Agriculture Ministry.

In the region of Srem, farmers are blocking the Sabac-Ruma road for 15 minutes every hour. They have also erected a blockade near the bridge over the Sava River near Sabac, which is the only road connecting the area with the highway.

The farmers wish to come to Belgrade and drive their tractors past the government building, but the police are preventing them.

The Employers Association of Serbia said the farmers' protest has cost private companies more than several hundred million dinars a day. The association added that unless an agreement was reached and roads unblocked shortly, it would sue the state of Serbia for violations of the right to work and entrepreneurship.