In Australia, as many as 16,000 activists turned up in the capital city of Canberra, three times more than organisors had expected.

"It is an overwhelming success, Canberra has a population of 350,000, 16,000 have turned up, and it points to the fact politics is made by common people and not by a handful of politicians," said Rick Kuhn, a spokesman for ACT NOW the organisor.

In Sydney, two activists from a opposition party scaled an awning of a prominent building around the site of of the US consulate general, to unfurl a banner, which read "No US Oil War - The Greens".

In Perth, several thousands are expected to march the streets later Saturday.

Australia has sent some 2,000 troops, jet fighters and warships to the Middle East to join American and British forces preparing for a possible war on Iraq. Prime Minister John Howard is in Jakarta for talks on Iraq.

NEW ZEALAND

In nuclear-free New Zealand, a plane trailed a giant banner reading "No War, Peace Now" above the city of Auckland to coincide with the departure of the yachts taking part in the first America's Cup race before several thousand people marched peacefully through the main street.

In the sunny southern capital Wellington more than five thousand men, women and children clutching placards scrawled with "Bush, Blair, Howard - The Axis of Evil" and "Stop Bush Start Peace" walked through the central city, bringing traffic to a standstill.

Florists handed out leftover Valentine's Day flowers to mothers with babies in pushchairs, spiky-haired teenagers with skulls painted on their faces and elderly people waving white peace doves.

"Millions of people around the world are rallying today to say no to war, and New Zealand is the first country to send this message," Greenpeace spokesman Robbie Kelman said.

The main target of the demonstrations was US President George W. Bush and his thrust for war, but they were also directed at Australian Prime Minister John Howard who has joined British Prime Minister Tony Blair in committing troops.

New Zealand, which bans foreign warships that are either nuclear powered or are carrying nuclear weapons from its ports, opposes military action against Iraq unless it is backed by the United Nations.

Prime Minister Helen Clark on Saturday backed the continuation of weapons inspections over any call for a second U.N. resolution to authorise the use of force against Iraq.

Her comments followed a speech by chief U.N. arms inspector Hans Blix last week to the U.N. Security Council that no weapons of mass destruction had yet been found in Iraq, although he cautioned that many were unaccounted for.

"The New Zealand government's position has been that so long as it's fruitful to continue (inspections) it should continue," Clark, a former anti-Vietnam war protestor told the New Zealand Press Association.

A newspaper poll issued Friday showed nearly nine out of 10 New Zealanders oppose troops taking part in an attack without US sanction.

GLOBAL PROTESTS

In the US, New York is gearing up for a large anti-war rally opposite U.N. headquarters, with more demonstrations planned across the United States.

In London, protest organisers said they expected a huge turnout. "We believe that the London demonstration will be one of the biggest and the most pivotal because the British government is actively involved in the build up to war and the British people definitely do not want war," Murray said.

Across Europe, activists were expected to turn out to show their distrust of Washington's motivations for war and their fears that the world could be engulfed in a wider conflict.

Protesters in Rome said they expected more than a million people to attend Saturday's peace march.

(Additional Reporting by Catherine Walbridge).