Belgium's two main union federations plan a day of nationwide action including strikes on October 6 to protest against the government's failure to respond to rising prices.

The Christian CSC/ACV union federation said hat it would join its socialist counterpart, FGTB/ABVV, which proposed earlier this week demonstrating before the government presents its 2009 budget to parliament on October 14.

"We want to provide a clear signal before October 14. This is not a general strike but a day of action during which some workers will go on strike", Luc Cortebeeck, the Christian trade union's chairman, told a news conference without elaborating.

"Purchasing power is really a point we want to stress", he said.

Unions have urged the government to pass measures to alleviate the impact of inflation that hit a 24-year high of 5.9 percent in July.

Mr Cortebeeck said he could not yet say whether rail, bus and metro services would be affected by the industrial action. It was up to the federations' sector-specific organisations to decide what they wanted to do.

"This will become clear later on today", he said.