At the Balboa Port, about a mile outside the Panama Canal, about 300 striking dock workers moved carsized containers across the port entrance to fight off an army takeover ordered Thursday by the government.

"The port is shut down," said one dock worker. "We won't accept anything less than what they owe us," he said, asking not to be identified for fear of reprisal. "We'll wait here for [the army]."

Four shipping containers were stacked across the port entrance. They formed a barricade nearly 20 feet high and no yehicles or machinery were passing in or out.

Ports at Panama City and Colon, used primarily to receive and ship cargo, closed earlier in the week when dock workers angry about not being paid went on strike. The Panama Canal Commission said the shutdowns had no effect on its operations.

The four American military police arrested Thursday night in Panama City were identified by the Critica newspaper as Danny H. Feltro, William Jerry, Virts Richard and Tammy Markley.

The newspaper did not provide their ranks or other information, and the Pentagon said yesterday it could not immediately confirm the identities printed by the paper.

A U.S. Southern Command statement in Panama City said the four were members of a military police detachment checking on the "security of dependent families" living in the area in which they were detained.

The U.S. military dependents, like everyone else in Panama, have been without lights and water for extended periods because of the recent strikes.