Travellers sleep while waiting for news of their flights inside the Juscelino Kubitschek airport in Brasilia March 31, 2007, as chaos continued in Brazil's airports after the end of a five-hour strike by air traffic controllers. The government reached an overnight agreement with air traffic controllers to end their strike, but the brief walkout was enough to provoke dozens of cancellations and delays in nearly all the country's airports, and affected international flights in the region that use Brazilian airspace. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    RIO DE JANEIRO, March 31 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian air traffic controllers have ended their strike after the government agreed to meet their demands, but airport chaos in the country continues.

    Controllers returned to work on Saturday after the government agreed to give them a bonus, review the promotion system, change the military status of some controllers to civilian and cancel all staff transfers made over the past six months, reported local news service Agencia Brasil.

    Controllers began a hunger strike on Friday to protest poor work conditions and equipment safety concerns. The decision was taken after the country's top controller was transferred by the Air Force, which oversees the control of Brazil's air traffic.

    Those controllers viewed the transfer as a reprisal for a "work-to-rule" slowdown that controllers staged for better pay and more staff in the wake of last September's crash between a Gol airlines Boeing 737 and an Embraer Legacy executive jet that killed 154 people.

    The six-hour strike resulted in the cancellation of 82 flights and the delays of 101. Airport confusion continued as long-delayed passengers competed for seats, and airlines estimated that it would take days for services to return to normal.

    Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is in Washington for a meeting with his U.S. counterpart George W. Bush, promised to make a "final decision" on the conflict Tuesday.

    He also criticized the strikers for not sticking to their responsibilities. "When I was a union leader and wanted to order a company strike there were certain sectors that we decided wouldn't stop work. People who perform a service considered essential have more responsibility than others," he told Brazilian TV reporters.