Protesters in Panama on Tuesday burned an image of United States President-elect Donald Trump following his threat to demand control of the Central American country's interoceanic canal be returned to Washington.

Dozens of demonstrators gathered outside the US Embassy chanting, "Trump, animal, leave the canal alone" and "Get out, invading gringo," as about 20 police officers guarded the compound.

Some in the crowd carried banners reading "Donald Trump, public enemy of Panama."

"The (Panamanian) people have shown that they are capable of recovering their territory, and we are not going to give it up again," protester Jorge Guzman told Agence France-Presse.

The canal, inaugurated in 1914, was built by the US but handed to Panama on Dec. 31, 1999, under treaties signed some two decades earlier by then-US president Jimmy Carter and Panamanian nationalist leader Omar Torrijos.

"Panama is a sovereign territory, and the canal here is Panamanian," said Saul Mendez, the leader of a construction union that jointly organized the protest.

"Donald Trump and his imperial delusion cannot claim even a single centimeter of land in Panama," he added.

Trump last Saturday slammed what he called unfair fees for US ships passing through the Panama Canal and hinted at China's growing influence.

If Panama could not ensure "the secure, efficient and reliable operation" of the channel, "then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, and without question," he said.

President Jose Raul Mulino said in a statement on Monday, signed alongside the country's former leaders, that the canal's status is non-negotiable.