BRASILIA, May 30 (Reuters) - Hundreds of employees of Brazil’s anti-corruption Ministry of Transparency marched to the presidential palace on Monday to demand the removal of the minister appointed 18 days ago by interim President Michel Temer.

The demonstration against Minister Fabiano Silveira was prompted by a leaked recording of a conversation three months before he was appointed in which he was heard criticizing prosecutors in the Petrobras graft investigation.

The head of the employees’ union, Rudinei Marques, said almost all the 1,000 employees of the ministry joined the march, and 250 employees with management positions had left their posts and would not resume their duties until Silveira was gone. (Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Brad Haynes)