Toledo is desperate to raise his popularity

"Beginning this month, President Alejandro Toledo will receive a net salary of 12,813 nuevos soles ($3,660)," his office said in a statement earlier this week.

This is the third time the president is slashing his salary, under intense public pressure in a country where half the population survives on only $1.25 a day.

Mr Toledo - who set his salary at $18,000 a month after taking office in 2001 - first agreed to a cut of $6,000 after critics said he was paid too much for the president of a poor country.

However, with the criticism unrelenting, he later decided to further reduce his pay to $8,000.

Mr Toledo - a former shoe-shine boy who was elected on an anti-corruption platform - has acknowledged making mistakes during his first years in office.

Opinion polls show that that his approval ratings have sunk to a record low of 11%.