Top international bodies have accepted a request to probe the violent police repression last month of indigenous people protesting the construction of a road in the Bolivian Amazon, officials said Friday.

Rights observers from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) would form a commission to carry out the probe, said anti-corruption minister Nardy Suxo.

"What the government wants is to be able to count on a completely independent and objective commission," Suxo said.

Following widespread uproar, President Evo Morales called for an international investigation into the police crackdown and arrests of hundreds of activists who had been marching for a month.

Police fired teargas and 74 people were injured in the September 25 crackdown, according to official figures.

Morales, who came to power on a wave of indigenous support, and former interior minister Sacha Llorenti, who later resigned, denied ordering the crackdown. The defense minister and migration chief also resigned.

Indigenous people angry at the plans to build a highway through an Amazon nature reserve resumed their protest march last weekend, even after Morales suspended the project and publicly apologized for the violence.

The dispute is a major challenge for Morales, who has said the 300-kilometer (185-mile) highway is vital for the country's economic development.

The Brazil-financed road would run through the Isiboro Secure reserve, home to some 50,000 natives from three different indigenous groups.

The road is part of a network linking landlocked Bolivia to the Pacific Ocean through Chile and the Atlantic Ocean through Brazil.