"This is not about liberation, it's about the occupation of Iraq and the plundering of its natural resources," said Dustin Langley, a volunteer with the protest's sponsor, Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, or ANSWER.

"We're calling to stop this series of endless wars, to stop this occupation of Iraq and the Middle East," he said, adding that the "axis of evil" fingered by US President George W. Bush more than a year ago was no more than a "list of targets."

In addition, the United States has "already started threatening Syria," Langley said after repeated warnings issued over the past few days by senior US officials that Damascus faced a critical choice in its dealings with Iraq.

Protests here and elsewhere in the United States, notably Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, are in solidarity with a global day of protests in dozens of cities around the world -- including in Britain, Italy, Japan and South Korea.

Nearby in front of the seat of the US Congress, a demonstration in support of the US-led war kicked off around noon as thousands of people chanting "USA, USA" and waving US flags filled the Mall for a "Rally for the Troops."

"This is a significant moment in American history and one that we can be proud of," said speaker Bill Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard magazine "It's not the end of the war on terror ... it's the end of the beginning."

The march organized by ANSWER, a coalition of mostly leftist groups that was a key organizer of the massive demonstrations held in the weeks prior to the war, will pass by the headquarters of Halliburton, Bechtel and other corporations set to snap up lucrative postwar reconstruction contracts in Iraq.

Marchers will also pass by the offices of news groups such as Fox News and The Washington Post that have been criticized for their coverage of the war.

Langley branded Fox News -- which surpassed CNN in American audience share two years ago -- as the Pentagon's "pro-war propaganda office" and said the Post had "fallen in line with the rest of the corporate media, pretty much toeing the Pentagon line, talking about liberation while ignoring the human side of the war."

Another protester, 73-year-old Lonnie Picknes from New Jersey, said: "I am here to oppose corporate global domination and to stop the murder of innocent people. I support the troops but my desire is to bring them back home."

Anti-occupation activists also protest the man picked to head an interim government in Iraq, retired three-star US general Jay Garner, 64, under fire for his links to the defense industry and strong support of Israel.

The demonstration coincides with weekend meetings of the Group of Seven industrialized nations' finance ministers, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, with anti-globalization activists planning a protest Sunday.

Streets were closed off for several blocks around the White House and IMF headquarters, and also Blair House, opposite the presidential mansion, where foreign dignitaries are lodged.

The IMF and the World Bank emphasized that they had taken all the security measures necessary ahead of the meetings.

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