People demonstrate against the government economic policies in front of La Moneda presidential palace in Santiago on Wednesday. — AFP/VNA Photo

SANTIAGO — Chile's government met with opposition leaders on Thursday in a fresh bid to end deadly protests that forced the country to abandon hosting two major economic and climate summits, but leftist parties poured scorn on the efforts.

The unrest started with protests against a rise in transport tickets and other austerity measures and descended into burning, looting and clashes between protesters and police.

Protesters are angry about low salaries and pensions, poor public healthcare and education and a yawning gap between rich and poor.

Pinera has reshuffled his government and announced a series of measures aimed at placating protesters.

But they have continued demanding that the right-wing billionaire president step down.

On Thursday, the government failed to convince political rivals it has the will to make the necessary changes to appease protesters.

Following two hours of talks at La Moneda, the presidential palace, Socialist Party leader Alvaro Elizalde said the government "is not prepared to listen to the citizens' demands".

Heraldo Munoz, leader of the Party for Democracy, said he'd still not seen "clear signals in favour of dialogue".

Earlier, Elizalde and other opposition leaders expressed support for proposals to reform the country's 1980 constitution, which dates to the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

Pinera has not ruled out constitutional reform.

The speaker of the Supreme Court Lamberto Cisterna has backed a proposal to set up a parliamentary group as a first step towards a new constitution.

'Painful' summit call

The impact of the unrest on Chile's international image worsened on Wednesday when the government said it was pulling out of hosting the APEC economic summit in November and the December COP climate gathering.

The country said it had no choice but to abandon the summits for security reasons.

Pinera said the move was "painful" but was driven by "common sense".

US President Donald Trump had said he was planning to meet Chinese counterpart President Xi Jinping at the APEC talks.

Trump was hoping for progress towards ending an 18-month trade war between the world's two biggest economies.

The White House said on Thursday, however, that Trump backed Pinera's decision to pull out of the summit.

"The United States stands with Chile, an important ally, as it works to peacefully restore national order," said White House spokesman Judd Deere.

Trump said an alternative location for the signing of a US-China trade deal with Xi will be "announced soon".

APEC said it supported Chile's decision but gave no indication there would be a replacement summit this year, saying only that Malaysia would host the 2020 event.

Pinera said in an address on Thursday that Spain had offered to host the COP 25 climate summit in Madrid on the original scheduled dates of December 2-13. — AFP