ANTI-WAR PROTESTS: Protesters took to the streets from Tokyo to London to San Francisco over the weekend in anti-war demonstrations fired up by speculation that a US-led strike on Iraq was drawing near.
Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators gathered in cities across the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East as US troops amassed in the Gulf.
In the United States, where the largest rallies took place, more than 100,000 people demanded the White House back down and give UN weapons inspectors a chance.
Thousands marched on Washington and San Francisco, and at smaller protests in Chicago and Tampa, Florida, on Saturday in what organisers said was the largest showing of US anti-war sentiment since President George W. Bush started making his case for attacking Baghdad last year.
"The path this administration is on is wrong and we object. It is an immoral war they are planning and we must not be silenced," said actress Jessica Lange, addressing a huge crowd in the centre of Washington.
Protesters arrived by bus from California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota and other states and gathered in temperatures of minus 6. Many were middle aged and said they had also demonstrated against the Vietnam war.
In San Francisco, an estimated 50,000 people - a patchwork of environmentalists, labour activists, Hollywood celebrities, veterans and self-described anarchists - turned out.
In the Middle East, protests sounded an ominous note.
Thousands in Beirut carrying Palestinian and Iraqi flags chanted, "Sign your name on a suicide attack on US interests." British politician George Galloway said at the march, "A peaceful solution must be found, or we're all going over the cliff in the Middle East and all of us will be damaged in the fall."
Tens of thousands of Syrians blocked traffic on the streets of Damascus as they marched against what they saw as a pre-determined US plan to attack a fellow Arab state.
In central Cairo, about a thousand demonstrators called on the Egyptian government to prevent US and British warships from using the Suez Canal en route to attacking Iraq.
More than 4,000 Japanese gathered in Tokyo, police said, some wearing traditional costumes, others masks of Bush.
"I cannot forgive \ aggressive attitude," Koki Okazaki, a 16-year-old demonstrator, said. "It would be an awful thing if Japan were to take part in the war."
In the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi, a few thousand people, many of them school children, formed a human chain to condemn a possible attack on Iraq.
Some 48 French cities and towns held marches. Protests were also planned in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Russia.
About 4,000 peaceful protesters turned out in Gothenburg, Sweden, police said. A slogan read: "Drop Bush not bombs."
In Britain, anti-war protesters from London to Liverpool lampooned Prime Minister Tony Blair in their efforts to rally opposition.
In Canada, thousands of people protested a possible war as a new poll showed 62 per cent of Canadians think the country's armed forces should only take part in a US-led attack on Iraq if the assault is authorised by the United Nations.
Meanwhile, leaders of world religions appealed to believers in all faiths to work to avert a conflict in Iraq as anti-war protests gathered pace around the world.
The Vatican-sponsored meeting was attended by representatives of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism and Sikhism. - (Reuters)