World wakes up to anti-war protests

Protesters opposed to war on Iraq gathered for mass demonstrations around the world on Saturday as UN arms chiefs traveled to Baghdad to tell its leaders cooperation was the only way to avoid armed conflict.

With Washington massing troops and equipment in the Gulf and Iraq declaring itself mobilized for battle, thousands of demonstrators in the United States, Britain, Japan, France, Syria, Russia, Italy, Yemen, Ireland, Cyprus and Pakistan took to the streets to say "no" to war.

"There's been too much capital invested in this war for it not to happen. But we're making our position clear, we're saying 'no'. There are people speaking out on this all over the world now, and we're part of it," said Adam Conway, 24, an activist living at a peace camp near Shannon Airport in Ireland.

President Bush has said he will lead a "coalition of the willing" to force Iraq to give up its alleged weapons of mass destruction if Baghdad does not cooperate with UN arms inspectors.

Secretary of State Colin Powell told a German daily that Washington believed by the end of January there would be "a persuasive case" Iraq was not cooperating.

The White House has also seized on the discovery of empty chemical warheads in Iraq as evidence of noncompliance, calling the weapons cache "serious and troubling," though UN weapons chief Hans Blix played down the significance of the find.

Pleading for the White House to back down and let inspections run their course, tens of thousands of people were expected to protest in Washington and San Francisco on Saturday in the largest anti-war demonstrations since Bush began making a case against Iraq last year.

"Bush has said that he intends to launch a pre-emptive war, and now he's facing the most formidable obstacle, which is a pre-emptive anti-war movement," said Washington lawyer Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, who is helping to organize the protests.

UN arms experts pushed ahead with their intensified search for banned weapons in Iraq on Saturday, inspecting mobile laboratories, state companies and colleges.

Blix and International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei are due in Baghdad on Sunday for two days of talks aimed at averting war.