KUALA LUMPUR • Malaysia's resurgent opposition vowed yesterday to continue street protests against steep fuel price increases, piling more pressure on the country's beleaguered prime minister.

The government said on Wednesday petrol prices would rise 41 percent to 2.70 ringgit a litre and diesel 63 percent to 2.58 ringgit, as part of a package of reforms that would save the state $4.23bn.

Analysts said the fuel price hike would rescue government finances, which have been weighed down by hefty energy subsidies as crude prices soar, but could trigger an early exit for Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Yesterday, about 20 people, most of them members of the opposition Democratic Action Party, held a peaceful protest against the fuel hike in the capital.

Protes, a loose grouping of opposition parties and non-governmental bodies, said yesterday it hoped to bring 100,000 people out on the streets on July 12 to demand that fuel prices be brought back to their earlier level. "In the next five weeks, we will be coordinating to bring 100,000 people together in July to protest in the city centre," Mohamed Hatta Ramli, one of the movement's coordinators, said by telephone.

The last round of fuel price increases in 2006 sparked a series of street protests in the normally peaceful country. Yesterday’s fuel rise is expected to lift average inflation to a 10-year high of 4.2 percent in 2008, central bank chief Zeti Akhtar Aziz said on Thursday, compared to last year's 2 percent.