As one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, France on Saturday staged a nationwide protest against the ongoing Iraqi war, calling for an immediate halt to the war by the United States and return of peace to the Iraqi people.

Called by more than 100 political parties and communities, about 100,000 people marched through the downtown in Paris, shouting slogans "Halt to war, maintaining peace in the Middle East."

Some Americans living in the French capital also voiced their strong opposition to the US-led war against Iraq. Leading the demonstration, they held up slogans against the war.

Also on Saturday, Spain, one of the staunchest US allies on disarming Iraq by force, saw a sweeping wave of anti-war demonstrations at home, with thousands of Spaniards taking to the streets Saturday in the main cities of the country in protest against the US-led war.

The demonstrations, sponsored by social organizations and pacifist groups, proceeded in a peaceful way and in most places ended with mass rallies in the center of the cities and some autonomous communities.

In Seville, some 150,000 people, according to organizers, or 15,000, according to the local police, marched from Plaza Nueva Square to Spain Square, together with leaders of opposition political parties and trade unions.

The protest, called by the Social Forum, included a minute of silence and the blocking of the regional office of the Popular Party (PP), where some demonstrators hurled bags of excrement, oranges and tomatoes.

In Barcelona, thousands of individuals were summoned by the group "Auterem la guerra" to demonstrate against the armed conflict in Iraq.

In Madrid, groups of actors took to the streets without incidents following a clash reported on Friday night between groups of demonstrators and law-enforcement personnel guarding the facilities of the US Embassy in the capital.

Thousands of demonstrators protested in Bilbao in response to a call by trade union leaders and social organizations, marching from the seat of the Basque government in the city and the building of the local parliament, and ended the event by releasing hundreds of pigeons.

In Malaga, several thousand people marched on downtown streets accompanied by representatives of the Andalucia government, the Socialist Workers Party, United Left Party, the General Union of Workers and the Movement Against Intolerance. The Hispano-Iraqi Friendship Association President Abood Abdulla also participated in the protest.

In the Portuguese capital Lisbon, about 300,000 people marched through streets Saturday to protest the US-led military attacks on Iraq.

The demonstrators marched peacefully from Marques Pombal Squareto Rosio Square in downtown Lisbon, chanting "Yes to peace, no to war" and "Stop the military intervention of Iraq."

City authorities said the march proceeded without major incidents.

The march was called by leaders of some Portuguese organizations and major opposition parties.

In Latin America, about 5,000 angry Chileans rallied in the capital on Saturday to protest against the ongoing US-led war on Iraq.

The demonstration was called by the Chilean Communist Party, the Humanists Party, TV sectors and writer Pedro Lemebel.

After gathering at the Italy Square, the demonstrators marched to the Central Square of the city.

Fernando Aliaga, leader of the Peace and Justice Service, said the demonstration was aimed to urge the government to express its strong opposition to the unilateral military action of the United States.

In Australia, which has contributed 2,000 troops to the war, anti-war demonstrations continued Sunday across the country.

About 3,000 anti-war protesters rallied Sunday afternoon on the lawn outside Parliament House in Canberra chanting peace slogans.

Organizers said they were from 23 cities and towns in the country.

Their slogans were sharply against the rhetoric of the government. Directing to "the coalition of the willing," the slogan plates answered "the coalition of the killing," to "the axes of evil," they said, "Bush, Blair, Howard -- the axes of evil."

Some threatened to vote out Prime Minister John Howard, saying "put Howard's coalition at the last."

According to the Australian Associated Press, tens of thousands of people have marched through the streets of central Sydney to voice their opposition to the war in Iraq. Organizers said they believed more than 50,000 people attended the rally.

On the same day, more than 1,000 people from 40 Indonesian organizations staged a peaceful rally in its capital of Jakarta in front of the United States embassy to protest against the US-led war on Iraq.

The rally, organized by a coalition of some 40 organizations, mostly Muslims but also including Christian groups, ended after some three hours with the burning of an effigy of US President George W. Bush and the reading out of a joint statement demanding an immediate halt to the US invasion of Iraq.

"We call for the war be immediately halted," said the statement, read out from a makeshift stage set up on a pick-up truck parked across the road from the embassy.

The protesters, facing barbed wire and concrete blocks placed in front of the mission, displayed long banners demanding the halt to the invasion and that the heads of governments in the United States, the United kingdom, Australia and Spain be dragged to court for violations of human rights, the Jakarta Post reported.

Iraqi cities came under new rounds of heavy bombardment unleashed by US warplanes and cruise missiles from late Saturday through early Sunday while US and British ground forces advanced northward toward central Iraq.

Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf told national TV on Sunday that US-led forces had pounded civilian districts and destroyed seven civilian houses in the latest the air raids on the Iraqi capital.

(Xinhua News Agency March 23, 2003)