Activists from Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party marched through the streets shouting anti-US slogans, followed by supporters of the Awami League of her arch-rival Sheikh Hasina Wajed.

"Down with US imperialism," "America get out of Iraq," "Heroic people of Iraq go ahead, we are with you" shouted the demonstrators.

An estimated 50,000 demonstrators from scores of political, social and professional groups took part in the protest, police and witnesses said.

The fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami and other Islamic parties and groups staged similar marches and protests in nearby streets amidst hundreds of slogan-chanting activists from rival left-wing and secular parties.

The three-hour long demonstration, which included chorus songs and parodies of the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq, was witnessed by hundreds of commuters and shoppers who were stranded as the protestors blocked the roads, witnesses said.

Hundreds of police and paramilitary troops guarded the main intersections.

Organisers said the collapse of the regime in Baghdad gave them no reason to ease the anti-war demonstrations.

Bangladesh, the world's third largest Muslim majority country, has repeatedly called for an end to the war and has seen almost daily anti-US and anti-war protests.

On Friday hundreds of truck and bus drivers abandoned their vehicles in southeastern port city of Chittagong in response to a transport strike called to protest the "mass killing" of civilians in Iraq.

Police and witnesses said all public transport in Chittagong and the surrounding districts was affected by the dawn-to-dusk protest strike.

Further anti-war protests by Islamist and other groups were also held after Friday prayers in Dhaka, where last week some American business offices were stoned.

SPACE.WIRE