Up to 10 million people around the world protested against war on Iraq in an unprecedented weekend of peace demonstrations aimed at US President George W. Bush and his closest allies.
Protesters hit the streets from London to Rio de Janeiro and New York to New Zealand, but the largest rallies were in countries where the governments support Mr Bush's war plans — including Britain, Spain, Italy and Australia.
The size of the peace marches outdid anything seen in the Vietnam War or the first Gulf War, and featured the biggest political protests ever seen in countries like Britain and Spain.
The biggest peace rallies were in Europe, where about 1 million marched in London, a similar crowd gathered in Rome, and Spain had rallies in Madrid and Barcelona that together included well over 1 million people. About 80,000 marched in Dublin and 70,000 in Amsterdam.
In Berlin, an estimated 500,000 turned out in the biggest protests since World War II to support the Government's opposition to war on Iraq, while France's Interior Ministry said 300,000 rallied to back French resistance to war plans.
"People across the world are telling France to hold fast," Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said. "France is giving hope to the world, France is giving peace a chance."
In the US, more than 100,000 people marched in New York, and there were large rallies in other cities.
About 200,000 Syrians, whose land border with Iraq will put it on the front line of any conflict, marched in a government-backed rally.
About 500,000 turned out across South America, where Brazil's left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva promised to rally regional governments against the war.
Even researchers at the US-run McMurdo Station near the South Pole were planning to form a "peace symbol" in the snow.
The only reports of violence came from Athens, where demonstrators burned a car, smashed shop windows and injured five police.
Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz praised the protests, saying Mr Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and their allies had to listen to their people to prevent catastrophe.
"The people of Iraq want peace, and millions of people around the world are demonstrating for peace, so let us all work for peace and resist war," he said in Italy.
In London, where Mr Blair is Mr Bush's most important ally against Iraq, a range of protesters converged on Hyde Park for a rally organised by Muslim and peace groups.
The Daily Mirror, which has campaigned against the war, sponsored the rally and provided loudspeakers, placards and other resources.
As middle-class families braved chilly weather to join left-wing activists at the rally, one protester added an English flavour with a placard declaring "Make tea, not war".
US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson urged the British crowd to apply "serious street heat" to Mr Blair and Mr Bush, claiming it was the largest anti-war protest the world had ever seen.
Mr Jackson was backed by religious leaders and a string of British politicians and celebrities, including playwright Harold Pinter and US actor Tim Robbins.
The Mirror put the crowd at 2 million, while other newspapers estimated 1 million to 1.5 million. Police said at least 750,000 people had joined the two marches to Hyde Park, with "many more" arriving directly at the rally site.
Liberal Democratic Party leader Charles Kennedy claimed the huge turnout had killed any chance of Mr Blair supporting military action against Iraq not supported by a UN mandate. However, Mr Blair stood firm, telling a Labour Party conference in Glasgow that even a rally of a million people was smaller than the number of people killed or displaced by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
Conceding that innocent people would be killed in a war on Iraq, Mr Blair said the alternative might be worse.
"If the result of peace is Saddam staying in power, not disarmed, then I tell you there are consequences paid in blood for that decision too," he said.
"Ridding the world of Saddam would be an act of humanity. It is leaving him there that is, in truth, inhumane.
"I do not seek unpopularity as a badge of honour, but sometimes it is the price of leadership and the cost of conviction."
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