Protesters and police clashed on a remote jungle highway in the Peruvian Amazon, leaving at least twenty-two people dead including nine police, officials and indigenous leaders said.

Native communities in Peru, demanding more control over natural resources, have blocked roads and waterways off-and-on since April in a bid to get the government to revoke a series of investment rules passed last year and revise concessions granted to foreign energy companies.

"I hold the government of President Alan Garcia responsible for ordering the genocide," indigenous leader Alberto Pizango told reporters in Peru's capital, Lima.

The confrontation, which protesters say happened when armed forces opened fire on them from helicopters, is by far the most violent act of the demonstrations so far.

It occurred in a resource-rich area of the Amazon where companies are looking to develop oil and natural gas projects.

Speaking on local CPN radio, Peru's national police director, Jose Sanchez Farfan, said officials were attacked by people with fire arms when police tried to clear a highway that protesters were blocking.

The death toll is expected to climb as dozens of people are reported injured.

The contested highway is located in the Bagua province, in a remote Amazon region of northern Peru.