Nepal's royal government has extended a daytime curfew outside the capital as opposition parties staged sporadic rallies in Kathmandu and elsewhere despite warnings that protesters may be shot.

In the southwest town of Bharatpur, witnesses said around 2,000 protesters clashed with police firing tear gas after a woman died overnight from injuries sustained in a demonstration.

The death, reported by a hospital spokesman in the town, was the second during pro-democracy demonstrations over the weekend.

In Kathmandu, the seven-party opposition alliance which called the protests said people took to the streets despite the curfew and tight security to push King Gyanendra to give up the absolute power he seized 14 months ago.

"Protesters have defied the curfew in six different places in Kathmandu and are still continuing Sunday morning," said Kashinath Adhikari, leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist).

He said about a dozen people had been injured in clashes throughout the capital.

In Bharatpur, people rallied early in the morning from five different places and converged on a major marketplace, Narayan Sharma, a local journalist, told AFP by phone.

"Protesters rained stones on police and they responded by firing tear gas. They are still in the streets chanting anti-king slogans," Sharma said.

It was the second day of violence in Bharatpur, 220 kilometres (138 miles) southwest of Kathmandu, after thousands went on a rampage Saturday that left dozens injured and the woman dead.

She was the second person to die in clashes with government forces during the four-day strike called by the alliance in concert with Maoist rebels. It is set to end Sunday.

The government extended a daytime curfew in the capital to several towns, including the scenic tourist resort of Pokhara, 200 kilometres (120 miles) west of Kathmandu, where on Saturday troops shot dead a demonstrator. The army said the killing was in self-defence.

The curfew also covers Butwal and Taulihawa in the southwest, where at least 11 Maoist rebels and three security men were killed during clashes on Friday night.

A night curfew is also in force in the capital, meaning residents have just a few hours in the morning and in the evening to buy food.

"I am stocking food for at least the next few days as I don't know how long this situation will linger on," said housewife Sunita Shrestha. "The atmosphere is getting really scary."

Under a crackdown to derail the protests, the government has issued orders to shoot curfew violators, cut mobile phone services and carried out mass arrests.

On Sunday security forces, riding armoured cars mounted with machine-guns and wearing heavy riot gear, fired tear gas to break up small groups in the capital.

The patrols followed scores of arrests Saturday of people defying the curfew including the former speaker of the House of Representatives, Daman Nath Dhungana, and former Supreme Court justice Laxman Aryal.

"We arrested some 200 people in the Kathmandu valley," said a police officer on condition of anonymity. On Friday, the government said 751 people had been arrested since last Monday.

Gyanendra, who has come under international condemnation for the escalating crackdown, justified his power grab in February 2005 by saying politicians had failed to quell the decade-old Maoist insurgency, which has left 12,500 people dead.

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