BHOPAL , India - Union Carbide formally closed its Bhopal pesticide factory - scene of history's worst industrial disaster - despite a sit-in by 500 workers who remained camped inside to protest compensation.

The closure Thursday came just over seven months after toxic methyl isocyanate gas spewed from the plant's chemical storage tanks Dec. 3 , 1984, killing about 2,500 people and injuring as many as a quarter of a million others.

Tom Failla, a corporate spokesman in Danbury, Conn., headquarters for Union Carbide, said there were no immediate plans for the plant, primarily because of opposition from the Madhya Pradesh state government, which has refused to renew the plant's license.

The $25 million factory, set up in 1967, ceased production immediately after the leak, the worst industrial disaster in history. However, a Union Carbide research and development center in Bhopal was given permission recently to continue its work.

The closing leaves more than 700 workers jobless.

A month ago, 500 of the workers occupied the factory to press demands that Union Carbide give them better severance pay and the government provide new jobs.

"The management is paying compensation at the rate of 15 days salary per year (of service), which is inadequate," said Hatim Zariwala, president of the Union Carbide Workers Union.

More than 250 workers would get no severance pay because they had not completed five years of service with the company, he said.

The 500 workers remained inside the plant Thursday and Zariwala said they would not leave the sprawling, 55-acre facility unless their demands were met.

Failla said Union Carbide was "deeply concerned" about the loss of jobs and had paid workers full salaries for six months despite the shutdown of the plant.

He said Union Carbide India runs about a dozen plants in the country and employs about 9,000 workers.