Police strikers occupying the state legislature in the Brazilian city of Salvador vowed Monday to resist if troops try to flush them out amid a tense standoff between the security forces.

The strike, which began six days ago, cleared the way for a wave of looting, assaults and at least 87 murders in and around Salvador, capital of the northeastern state of Bahia, which will be a host city in the 2014 soccer World Cup, and where major Carnival celebrations are set to begin in two weeks.

"We are holding talks to end the protest. The police strikers are demanding amnesty but the government can't stop a judicial decision which orders the capture" of the strike leaders, Robinson Almeida, a spokesman for the Bahia state secretariat,told AFP.

The strikers are also demanding higher pay and better working conditions.

Earlier Monday, strike leader Marcos Prisco vowed "to resist," warning that "if the army storms the building, there could be a catastrophe," according to the Globo website G1.

Prisco said nearly 4,000 people -- striking police and their families, including 300 children -- were inside.

But in a telephone interview later in the day, the 42-year-old labor leader said: "I think this will end up in negotiations."

"The government wants my head. But I don't understand why," he told AFP, adding that the protest was "peaceful."

"The strike is affecting the entire state, but in Salvador, the military deployment is bigger because they want Prisco's head," said striking policeman Ricardo Amando by telephone.

"We have some food, water and milk. We have light thanks to a generator which we turn off during the day," he added, saying the military "could invade tonight."

"If they have weapons, we have some too," he warned.

More than 1,000 soldiers and police on Monday surrounded the state legislative assembly occupied by hundreds of strikers and their families, Lieutenant-Colonel Marcio Cunha, an army spokesman, told AFP.

Outside the legislature building, some 300 supporters of the strikers held hands and formed a giant circle to say "Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be" prayers.

"We are fighting for our rights. If they want war, they will have war. Our fight is against the government," Eduardo Nascimento, a 56-year-old military policeman, said.

State officials reported 87 dead over the past six days, mostly in criminal violence in outlying poor suburbs, more than twice the number for the same period last year. Assaults and store lootings also increased.

On Saturday, a contingent of 3,500 army, navy and federal police took control of security in Bahia three days after the protest began.

And on Sunday a 40-member elite unit of the federal police arrived in Salvador, under orders to arrest the strike leaders.

A man who identified himself as Elias and claimed to be a leader of the protest told Salvador's Metropoli radio that the main obstacle in the negotiations was the state government's refusal to grant amnesty.

"If the government does not make concessions and only deploys the army to threaten, this will not solve things," he added.

The speaker of the state legislature, Marcelo Nilo, had urged the strikers to leave the building before midnight Sunday, after which the strike would be declared illegal and orders would be given to capture its leaders.

"The assembly cannot be used as refuge by fugitives of justice," he said in a statement. State authorities refused to grant amnesty to the strikers but offered to meet part of their pay demand in exchange for an end to their strike.

Prisco turned down the offer Monday, according to G1.

Officials say a third of the state's 31,000 police have joined the strike.

This city of 2.5 million people, which is the heart of Afro-Brazilian culture, is one of 12 that will host matches of the 2014 soccer World Cup.

The strike and the resulting spike in violence came just two weeks before millions of tourists were expected to arrive for Brazil's premier tourist event, the Carnival.

Bahia, Brazil's fourth most populous state with a population of 13.6 million, is a busy center for the Carnival celebrations.