But the number of demonstrators in many major cities was nowhere near the massive turnout seen at pre-war rallies.

Still, thousands marched, from Los Angeles to Madrid, which is still reeling from the March 11 train bombings that claimed 202 lives.

Protesters halted traffic in San Francisco.

Crowd estimates ranged from around 20,000 to a claim by organisers that 50,000 people took part in the protest, also attend by Hollywood star Woody Harrelson.

But the demonstration, while spirited and outspoken, appeared much smaller than those held here in the run-up to the war when more than 50,000 attended one of the protests.

Around 2,500 placard-waving and chanting demonstrators joined a rowdy protest in Hollywood.

In Chicago, 53-year-old Connie Cominsky said she had lost faith in President George W. Bush.

"When they first went over there, I really believed Saddam was a bad guy, and they had weapons of mass destruction," she recalls, adding ruefully: "Shame on me for being so stupid, so naive, for believing my president."

As many as 50,000 marchers in New York, the largest of the US demonstrations, demanded an end to the occupation of Iraq.

Sue Niederer, from New Jersey, carried a sign with photos of her son, Seth, in military uniform and the words "Bush, You Killed My Son."

"We have to get the goddamn troops out of there. They should never have gone to Iraq in the first place," said Niederer, whose son was killed while trying to defuse a bomb in Iraq.

In Canada, which opposed the war, thousands protested in Montreal.

Large crowds opposing the occupation gathered across Spain and Italy, whose governments backed US President George W. Bush's call to war to oust Saddam Hussein despite massive public opposition.

In Spain, where 11.6 million converged in several cities the day after the March 11 attacks, hundreds of thousands of people joined anti-war marches.

"Solidarity with the victims of Madrid, Iraq and Palestine," read one banner.

Some 200,000 people marched in the northeastern port city of Barcelona, and while a similar demonstration in Madrid was barely half that size it was no less vociferous.

Italian anti-war organizers were the most successful, claiming up to a million people had crammed into the streets of Rome, but police put the figure at about 250,000.

A sea of people of all ages, waving red balloons and rainbow flags with the message "Peace," stretched between Rome's Republic Square to the ancient Coliseum.

Elsewhere in the world organizers attracted more modest turnouts.

In central London, 25,000 anti-war activists, according to police, marched from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square, carrying banners reading "No more lies," and shouting "Anti-Bush," "Anti Blair," and "Anti-war everywhere," a reference to British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Police arrested two Greenpeace activists who Saturday scaled London's landmark Big Ben clock tower and unfurled a banner proclaiming "Time for the Truth."

Hundreds of thousands had turned out in London before the war.

In the Irish capital Dublin police said about 2,000 protesters marched behind a large black banner calling for "the end to the occupation of Iraq and Palestine."

"Bertie Bertie Bush, blood blood on your hands," shouted the demonstrators, aiming their wrath at Bush and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern.

Tens of thousands turned out in cities across France and Germany, with a group of about 2,500 gathering outside the central police headquarters in Paris and 500 in Berlin, where 70,000 had turned out before the war.

Thousands more protested across Europe, from Portugal to Poland, whose government deployed 2,500 troops to Iraq.

In Warsaw, about 500 peace activists protested in front of the US embassy. Marchers waved banners proclaiming "No to war," "Pull troops out of Iraq," and "No blood for oil."

Thousands of protestors also took to the streets across Turkey to denounce the occupation and a planned visit by US President George W. Bush to the country for a NATO summit in June.

Around 100 Syrians marched in central Damascus to denounce the conflict and the continued US-led occupation of Iraq.

Carrying Iraqi, Syrian and Palestinian flags, they chanted nationalist and anti-US slogans and burned US and Israeli flags.

"Down With the United States," and "No to Capitalist Globalisation," they chanted.

About 2,000 protestors in Egypt carried banners mocking the failure of the US-led coalition to find weapons of mass destruction (WMD), whose alleged existence Washington and London used to justify the war.

"No WMD, but 20,000 Iraqi civilians killed ... this is Bush's democracy," read a banner in English.

In Honduras, hundreds converged on the US embassy to demand the return of 370 Honduran troops from Iraq.

President Ricardo Maduro sent Honduran troops to Iraq where they are under Spanish command. The troops are scheduled to return to Central America in July.

Anti-riot police oversaw the protest as demonstrators called Bush a "fascist" and shouted: "You're the terrorists."

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WAR.WIRE