The strike is the biggest challenge so far for Cristina Kirchner, the president [AFP]

The announcement late on Monday followed demonstrations by thousands of people in cities across the country's farming regions earlier in the day.
 
Argentina is one of the biggest food producers in the world.
 
Shops and businesses closed in cities such as Armstrong, Cordoba and La Pampa in support of the strike.
 
Farmers' organisations have led protests since March 10 due to restrictions on the export of wheat and beef, and major export tax rises for all grains, particularly soy.
 
They said at a news conference that they would continue to withhold grain and soya sales for export, even though the government had recently offered concessions.

Luciano Miguens, president of the Rural Society of Argentina, said: "We've decided to continue the non-sale of grains destined for export until 0:00 hours [0300 GMT] on Monday June 9."

Miguens said that farmer's restrictions on livestock sales would be lifted on Tuesday morning out of concern for citizens.

The strike has further increased the world market price of soy and wheat during what has been termed a world food crisis.

Argentina is the world's third largest corn and soy exporter and forth largest supplier of wheat and beef.

Sliding tax system

The soya tax is currently set at 44 per cent, but could go as high as 52 per cent if the product price rises above $600 a tonne.

On Friday, the government offered to fix a cap of a little more than 52 per cent on the sliding tax scale if the price of soya surpasses $600 a tonne. However, this failed to satisfy the farmers.

Farmers are demanding greater changes to the sliding-scale tax system.

The strike has become a crisis for the government. A study released on Monday showed public confidence in the government to have fallen from April to May, precipitated largely by the farmer's crisis.

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