The strike ended with an agreement on a "multisector commission" that would draft a plan for the mining which has been unregulated until now, said officials and protest leaders.

Teodulo Medina, secretary general of the Federation of Artisanal Miners in Peru, told reporters the government would also review the emergency decree that caused an outcry from the miners.

Six people have been killed and some 20 wounded in clashes since Sunday as the miners blocked stretches of the Pan-American highway.

The Peruvian government maintains that unregulated mining operations pollute Amazon jungle rivers with mercury and other contaminants, and are linked to rainforest deforestation and child labor exploitation.

Miners say the new government rules especially affect gold mining operations in the southeastern Madre de Dios jungle region, where most independent miners work.

The prospectors argued that the new rules were aimed at paving the way for large companies to enter areas in which they operate.

The head of the government's Council of Ministers, Javier Velasquez Quesquen, who met with the miners, said the state of emergency in the regions affected by the protests would be lifted.

Peru is the world's fifth largest gold producer, and according to the strikers there are some 300,000 independent miners.

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