Bhubaneswar, June 18 (IANS) Heavy rains Saturday held up land acquisition for the $12 billion Posco project in Orissa as thousands of villagers continued to protest against the project in Gobindpur village. Rights activist Swami Agnivesh arrived in the village to lend support to the protesters.

The land acquisition for South Korean steel major's project in coastal Jagatsinghpur district was earlier stopped for four days due to a local festival.

"We again cancelled the land acquisition work due to rains," Additional District Magistrate S.K. Chaudhuri told IANS. He said the process might resume Monday if the weather remained conducive.

Meanwhile, thousands of villagers were seen carrying umbrellas and protesting against the project in the troubled Govindpur village.

The morale of the villagers also got a boost when Swami Agnivesh arrived at the site and extended his support to the protesters.

Posco has planned to built a 12 million tonne steel plant -- the largest foreign investment in India -- near the port town of Paradip, about 120 km from here.

The company requires about 4,004 acres of land for the project, of which 2,900 acres is forest land. The local administration said it has already acquired nearly half of the land required for the project.