(Repeats to change to UPDATE 5, no changes to text) (Updates with Salvador closed, fresh Codelco comment)

By Manuel Farias

SANTIAGO, April 16 (Reuters) - Fighting pitched battles with police, Chilean subcontract workers on Wednesday started a new strike at all of state-owned Codelco's divisions over work conditions and pay, forcing the No.1 global copper producer to close its Andina and Salvador divisions.

An estimated 2,000 workers massed at Codelco's El Teniente mine alone, knocking giant tubes off the back of a flatbed truck as they were sprayed by water cannon. They also set fire to rubber tires on the road.

However, Codelco said its Codelco Norte, Teniente and Ventanas divisions were operating normally.

The strike helped push copper prices on the London Metal Exchange up more than 4 percent in intraday trade, to within a whisker of all-time highs.

"Due to security reasons, operations at the Andina division were suspended this morning, and this afternoon a similar decision was taken at the Salvador division," Codelco said in a statement.

Andina lies around 50 miles (80 km) northeast of the Chilean capital Santiago and produced 218,000 tonnes of copper in 2007. Salvador lies 685 miles north of Santiago, and produced 64,000 tonnes of copper last year.

"Codelco is sorry that a small group of people, who lend their services through some subcontracted companies, are trying to affect its production activities through the use of violence and threats," Codelco said earlier.