BHOPAL , India - Protesters blocked two U.S. lawyers from leaving their hotel Friday in a demonstration against a proposed $350 million out-of-court settlement for victims of the 1984 Union Carbide gas leak.

The protesters say the settlement does not provide sufficient compensation for victims of history's worst industrial disaster and their families.

About a dozen members of two voluntary relief organizations working for the 200,000 injured in the December 1984 disaster squatted under a tent outside the hotel of attorneys John Coale of Washington, D.C., and Arthur Lowy of Arlington, Va., preventing them from leaving.

The protesters, who began their sit-in several days ago, demanded the lawyers end efforts to gain victims' approval for a proposed out-of-court settlement.

The agreement was reached last month between the U.S.-based multinational chemical company and U.S. lawyers representing the injured and survivors of more than 1,700 people killed in history's worst industrial disaster.

Coale and Lowy were representing five law firms handling cases of about 1,200 people killed and 40,000 injured by the leak of methyl isocyanate. The attorneys arrived in Bhopal during the last week of March to obtain their clients' consent to the proposal.

Under the plan, which must be approved by the U.S. judge handling lawsuits against Union Carbide, the company would pay $350 million to victims and their families.

The Indian government rejected the settlement as too low and says no agreement can be reached without its consent.