Campaigners took to the streets across the world once again today to protest against the Iraq war, amid mounting public fears the US-British forces could become embroiled in a bloody and prolonged conflict.
Forty thousand people came together in Germany to form a human chain in protest, the demonstration's organisers said, while a further 50,00 crowded into the capital Berlin.
The 50-kilometre (31-mile) chain stretched between the historic towns of Munster and Osnabruck in the northwest of the country where the two treaties to end the Thirty Years War, which took place between 1618-1648, were signed.
Around 15,000 people marched through Melbourne, Australia, to protest against the war and the participation of Australian troops, while Chinese authorities, in a rare move, approved a protest by Beijing citizens planned for tomorrow.
Led by members of opposition political parties, Melbourne protestors ripped up an American flag and accused Australian Prime Minister John Howard of betraying the rule of law by backing the war, local media reported.
"John Howard is becoming a global vigilante, contemptuous of the rule of law and contemptuous of the United Nations," opposition Labor lawmaker Lindsay Tanner told the rally.
The war has divided Australians and several large protests, including a violent rampage by school children through Sydney on Wednesday, have taken place since the US military, backed by Britain and Australia, invaded Iraq 10 days ago.
Earlier Malaysian police used tear gas to break up a protest while Bangladesh authorities rolled out barbed wire to keep marchers from the US embassy.
Asia, home to some of the world's most biggest Muslim populations, has seen a string of protests since the United States and its allies invaded Iraq last week.
Bangladeshi protesters, mostly from the Islamic Constitution Movement, chanted "Stop genocide in Iraq" and burned American flags and effigies of US President George W. Bush.
Demonstrators called for Mr Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair to be tried as war criminals.
In the French town of Arles, 30 anti war protestors covered petrol pumps at a filling station owned by US oil giant Esso with a massive black tarpaulin emblazoned with the words "the bloody stupidity of war".
Thousands of demonstrators marched on the US consulate in South Africa's Cape Town to protest against the war in Iraq, burning US flags and chanting anti-American slogans.
The protesters, estimated by SAPA news agency to number more than 10,000, demanded the expulsion of the US and British ambassadors in South Africa.
Tens of thousands of people were expected to turn out at protests today in London, Berlin, Paris, Barcelona, Rome and several other European cities including Dublin.
Agencies