In Germany and Italy protesters demanded the withdrawal of military facilities from US forces, while demonstrators in Croatia and Denmark condemned the suffering the 17-day-old war has inflicted on Iraqi civilians.

Protests were also reported in several cities in Pakistan, as a prelude to a planned mass march there on April 14.

In London, police said around 1,000 people marched on the US embassy, where speakers denounced the war, US President George W. Bush and his closest ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Protesters held up banners accusing Bush and Blair of being an "axis of evil" -- Bush's characterisation of Iraq, Iran and North Korea -- and demanded the resignation of the British prime minister.

"When I see the pictures of Iraqi people drinking sewage water, I also see the coalition dropping bombs on them," said Asad Rehman, a member of the Stop the War Coalition, which organised the demonstration.

The Stop the War Coalition plans to organise a major demonstration in London and more than 30 other cities worldwide on April 12.

In South Africa, police and the media said about 3,500 people protested against the war in Johannesburg and Cape Town, where they handed the government a statement demanding an end to military trade with the United States, Britain and backers of the war such as Australia and Israel.

"To continue to sell weapons to the US and UK in the light of the illegal invasion of Iraq means that the SA government has chosen to side with the invading armies," SAPA news agency quoted the statement as saying.

The South African government was a vocal opponent of the war before the invasion began on March 20.

In Germany, some 2,000 anti-war protesters gathered in Heidelberg outside the US armed forces' headquarters in Europe and laid a wreath for the thousands of war victims, police said.

They demanded an end to all assistance for the war from the Berlin government, which is staunchly opposed to the invasion but is nonetheless allowing US troops to overfly Germany and enjoy unfettered access to its military bases.

Further anti-war demonstrations took place in the southwestern German cities of Mannheim and Karlsruhe.

In Spain, about 30,000 demonstrators, according to organizers, formed a seven-kilometer (five-mile) human chain in the port city of Valencia.

In the southeastern city of Alicante, 3,000 people also protested against the war, while in Almeria, also in the south 1,500 protesters took to the streets. Some 1,000 people protested in Granada and 400 in Palma de Majorca, according to the organizers of the demonstrations.

A protest by 1,000 people took place outside the huge US airbase in Aviano, northeastern Italy, where up to 10,000 had demonstrated against the war two weeks earlier.

The interior ministry in Rome said a further 6,500 people took part in anti-war marches elsewhere in Italy, whose right-wing government backs Washington in the conflict.

In Denmark and Croatia protestors focussed on the suffering of innocent Iraqi civilians. Both countries' governments back the US position on Iraq.

Around 1,000 Danes braved a biting wind to form a human chain around the US, British and Spanish embassies in Copenhagen. They brandished placards saying "No to this shameful war" and "Bush murderer".

"Why is this illegal war taking place? Why is there so much destruction and suffering," asked 22-year-old student Kristine Pedersen.

"Why all this hypocrisy in the West and this policy of double standards, where you invade a country because it refuses to bow to the United Nations and you close your eyes to Israel, which takes no notice of the UN and has been oppressing the Palestinians for 35 years?"

Some 500 people staged an earsplitting anti-war protest with whistles, drums, rattles, tambourines and trumpets in the Croatian capital Zagreb, the largest held there since the conflict began.

They gathered outside the US embassy waving banners reading "Enough of wars", "Osama Bush Laden" and "Butchers go home".

"In the 21st century no one should use force to reach a solution," Ali Khadim, a 40-year-old Iraqi from Baghdad, who has been living in Zagreb for the past 22 years, told AFP.

Khadim carried a banner which declared "This is not a liberation but the killing of the Iraqi people" alongside photos of dead Iraqi children.

SPACE.WIRE