Millions to march in global Iraq peace protests

Millions of people are expected to march for peace in Iraq on Saturday in what organisers say could be the world's biggest anti-war protest.

From Antarctica to Reykjavik, demonstrations against the looming war in Iraq are planned in more than 350 town and cities by people from all walks of life and all ethnic groups.

London is expecting at least 500,000 marchers in what the organisers say will be a major blow to hawkish Prime Minister Tony Blair - US President George W. Bush's strongest supporter in his campaign to force Iraqi disarmament.

"We expect Saturday's demonstration to be the biggest ever in British political history," Andrew Murray, head of the British Stop The War coalition, said on Wednesday. "The British population do not consent to this war."

Britons are by no means alone in their distrust of the American motivation for the conquest of Iraq and fear of the possible global conflagration it could trigger.

Organisers in Rome are expecting more than 500,000 people to march through the city as the anti-war demonstration brings together trade unionists, centre-left political parties, anti-globalisation groups and ordinary citizens.

In Russia a series of demonstrations are planned on Saturday, as they are across the United States and Australia.

Organisers of a peace march in San Francisco say they expect more than 100,000 to converge on the city on Sunday.

In South Africa, where President Thabo Mbeki and former president Nelson Mandela have both spoken out strongly against any Iraq war, a series of demonstrations are planned.

Even in traditionally neutral Switzerland a series of protests are planned under the slogan "No to war in Iraq - No blood for oil!"

In Dublin, anti-war demonstration organisers expect upwards of 20,000 people to take part in a march through the city.

But the event in London, which organisers pledge will be peaceful despite fears it could be disrupted by anti-Israeli demonstrators, will be pivotal in the world peace movement.

Jeremy Corbyn, prominent maverick in Blair's ruling Labour Party, said the key speaker at the rally would be American anti-war campaigner Jesse Jackson.

"He is coming specially because opinion polls show that if Britain backs out of the war the American public will also stop supporting it," he told a news conference.

Blair, who has unflinchingly supported Bush since the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, has seen his popularity plunge in successive opinion polls.

As London and Washington have poured troops and armour into the Gulf, insisting that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was concealing weapons of mass destruction, they have suffered a series of blunders over dubious intelligence reports.