Togo's opposition on Thursday said three people were killed and dozens more injured as gangs of youths clashed with security forces trying to prevent the latest anti-government protest in the capital.

"We're informed that the provisional toll at 3:30 pm (1530 GMT) is three shot dead in Lome. There have been 44 shot and wounded, and 36 beaten up," opposition spokeswoman Brigitte Adjamagbo-Johnson told reporters.

Eric Dupuy, spokesman for the main opposition National Alliance for Change (ANC) party, said earlier that five people had been shot in the Be area of the city and that two of them were in a critical condition.

It was not immediately clear whether the five were among the 44. Shots had been fired around the home of ANC leader Jean-Pierre Fabre, he added.

The streets of the coastal capital were largely deserted ahead of the rally, which the opposition coalition has refused to cancel despite a government ban on weekday marches on security grounds.

Demonstrators planned to march to the offices of the West African bloc ECOWAS to demand the resignation of President Faure Gnassingbe -- the latest in two months of mounting protests against his regime.

Gnassingbe has been president since 2005 and is the scion of Africa's longest-ruling dynasty that has been in power in Togo since 1968.

The opposition wants the constitution changed and the introduction of a limit of two, five-year terms for presidents.

The deaths on Thursday followed at least four on Wednesday in Lome and the country's second city, Sokode, as protesters clashed with police and soldiers, the government said.

In Lome, most shops were still shut by midday (1200 GMT) and the streets were virtually empty apart from the occasional motorbike-taxi, an AFP correspondent said.

"Activity is at a standstill after days of disruption by the marches," said one mobile phone vendor in Deckon, the city's commercial hub.

"What's happening is weighing heavily on us. The politicians need to talk to find a solution to this crisis."

- Game of cat and mouse -

Adjamagbo-Johnson said the opposition was undeterred by the crackdown, despite seven deaths in two days. "We're determined. We will continue to protest every day," she said.

In Be, an opposition stronghold in the southeastern part of the capital, groups of youths attempted to set up barricades and burn tyres.

But the security forces, who were deployed in large numbers, sporadically fired teargas in a lengthy game of cat and mouse.

In other areas such as Amoutive, efforts were under way to remove barricades and the remains of burned-out cars that had been torched on Wednesday.

Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets on an almost weekly basis since August, increasing tensions across the country, including in the north, which has typically been supportive of the Gnassingbe family.

Fifteen people, most of them teenagers, have been killed in that time.

Gnassingbe currently holds the rotating presidency of ECOWAS and there has been little comment in the region and beyond about the unrest.

In Paris, the foreign ministry said it was following events in its former colony "with concern".

"We strongly condemn the recent violence that has left several people dead or injured (and) call for calm on both sides and dialogue," it said in a statement.

A source at the Togo presidency said Benin's head of state, Patrice Talon, made a low-key visit to Lome on Wednesday night to discuss the situation with Gnassingbe.

Source: AFP