Over 100 asylum-seekers have occupied a church in the old town of Switzerland's financial capital Zurich to protest about delays in processing their papers, activists said.

The peaceful occupation, in the days before Christmas, was intended to prompt sympathy from local people.

"It's a time when people expect a sign of humanity from each other," Tamara Rennaald of the activist group Bleiberecht (right to stay) said.

Bleiberecht added in a statement about 150 asylum-seekers and supporters had occupied the church since Friday. Ms Rennaald said at least 100 of these were asylum-seekers. The refugees - men, women and children - come from Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Yemen, Iraq, Iran, Ethiopia, Somalia and other countries.

They say asylum-seekers elsewhere in Switzerland are being processed promptly, but the Zurich authorities are not taking advantage of regulations allowing them to handle hardship cases quickly. They also object to the conditions they are held in.

The head of the Zurich migration office, Adrian Baumann, was quoted by Swiss news agency ATS as saying that the asylum-seekers did not meet the conditions for their claims to be examined, and that the Zurich authorities were sticking strictly to federal directives for dealing with foreigners.