ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Kazakh coal miners plan to strike this week to demand payment of wages running months in arrears, and trade union leaders said Monday that a general strike could follow if their demands are not met by the government.


Miners in northern Kazakhstan's Karaganda region -- the area of a grim former Soviet penal colony -- and at the massive open-cast complex at Ekibastuz say they will walk off the job Friday.


The Kazakh trade union congress also said industrial workers could lay their tools down across the country starting Jan. 20 because the government has not responded to calls made in October to support industry, pay wages on time and guarantee jobs.


Kazakhstan, with a population of 17 million, used to account for one-fifth of Soviet coal output before independence in 1991.


Output has since fallen, but some Russian industries in the Urals and western Siberia, tailor-made to burn Kazakh coal, remain dependent on supplies shipped by rail.


Kazakhstan's coal output fell 7 percent to 103 million tons last year, with 71 million tons mined in Ekibastuz and 32 million around Karaganda. Four-fifths went to power stations and heavy industry in Kazakhstan, and the rest to Russia.


Prime Minister Akezhan Kazhegeldin met miners' leaders late last week, but failed to stave off the planned strike. Other ministers held talks with union leaders at the weekend.


Miners' leader Mikhail Nikiforov said Monday that talks were continuing, but that "so far our members are determined to go ahead with the strike."


Around Karaganda 100,000 miners and support workers at 23 pits plan to stop work, along with a further 25,000 in Ekibastuz.


"Before we sit down and negotiate, we demand that wages be paid to calm the work force," union official Vyacheslav Sidorov said from Karaganda, 800 kilometers north of Almaty.


Miners' pay averages 8,000 tenge ($140) a month, which is above the Kazakh national average, but pit workers say they have not been paid since October and can only afford a diet of bread and potatoes.


A prolonged stoppage could do serious damage to the Kazakh economy, where industrial output has slumped since independence.