All across the world, the peace demonstrations begin

The biggest peace protest in Australia since the anti-Vietnam war marches of 30 years ago kicked off a weekend of rallies around the world against the threatened American-led action against Iraq.

Melbourne, Australia's second largest city, came to a standstill last night as a crowd of at least 150,000 gathered to hear speeches of defiance from politicians and union leaders. Organisers put it at 200,000.

The Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, is a staunch supporter of US President George Bush and has already sent 2,000 troops to the Gulf. But in Australia, there is wide-spread public opposition to any military action in Iraq without United Nations support.

Senator Bob Brown, leader of the Greens Party, told demonstrators yesterday that the size of the crowd showed Mr Howard did not have a mandate to take Australia to war.

In Tokyo, 6,000 Japanese marched, waving banners and carrying placards reading, "No War on Iraq". The mostly middle-aged crowd from labour unions and peace groups filed behind a truck with speakers blasting, "Power to the People". In the Philippines capital, Manila, 6,000 people marched on the US embassy, chanting "US imperialist, No1 terrorist", and burned a mock US missile.

Millions of people are expected to turn out this weekend for more rallies in hundreds of cities, including London, Rome, Dublin, New York, Vancouver, Mexico City, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Sydney, Canberra and Berlin.

Today's protest in Rome is almost certain to be the biggest anti-war demonstration in Europe. Organisers boast that it will be "the biggest peace demonstration in Italy's history", and they predict at least a million marchers.

If events pass off as smoothly as the enormous anti-war march in Florence in November, it will be entirely peaceful and overwhelmingly decorous. Guidelines for placards specify no anti-Americanisms and no harsh slogans. The march is expected to take six to seven hours and will start at 2pm from Piazzale di Partigiani in the south of the historic centre.

There will be no big-time celebrities or politicians in the van of the march, only representatives of the "oppressed" including Kurds and Palestinians, balanced, it is intended, by an Israeli and an American. But members of the Jewish community of Rome said they would not participate in case banners were brandished criticising Israel.

Those in charge of the march said 450 organisations had signed up for the protest, a broad coalition similar to that in Florence, including unions, church groups, left and centre-left parties and anarchist groups such as the Disobbedienti. Five thousand coaches were expected to arrive in the capital; and in many cities, people intending to participate have complained that there were no buses left to take them. Dozens of special trains have been laid on, and organisers were urgently negotiating with rail chiefs for more.

Twenty thousand people are expected to take to the streets of Dublin today in a protest organised by the Irish Anti-War Movement. Speeches, poetry readings and musical performances are expected. The group has also led protests at Shannon airport over use of Irish airports and airspace by the US military.

In the United States, demonstrators will be assembling in more than 300 towns and cities. The focal point will be New York, where organisers hope 500,000 will join a rally today. Performers and speakers include Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, a Nobel peace laureate, the veteran singer Pete Seeger, (who sang "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" during the Vietnam era) a group of Def Jam rap poets, Harry Belafonte, the Seventies activist Angela Davis and the actress Susan Sarandon.

A second large-scale demonstration is planned tomorrow in San Francisco. A similar event last month drew 200,000 people. And there will be an attempt to construct the largest human peace symbol on the beach in Santa Monica, California.

"When this weekend is over, there will never have been so many people in the world in a co-ordinated protest," said L A Kauffman, an organiser with the umbrella group, United for Peace and Justice, based in San Francisco.