NY protests as Republicans gather
Hundreds of thousands of people have rallied in New York against President Bush, as his Republican Party gathers for its national convention.
Speakers on the first day of the convention will include the former mayor of New York, Rudolph Giuliani, and Senator John McCain.
A massive security sweep has virtually sealed off the convention venue.
Police officers with dogs, bomb-detecting equipment and riot gear have closed off the surrounding streets.
Delegates to the convention, due to take place in Madison Square Garden, are being greeted with a list of prohibited items that includes guns, explosives, fireworks and knives.
Legal wrangling
Sunday's march, which went past the Madison Square Garden convention site, was led by activists including filmmaker Michael Moore and former presidential hopeful Jesse Jackson.
Police gave no official crowd estimate. One law enforcement official put the crowd at 125,000 people but organisers said it was more than 500,000, the Associated Press reported.
There were no immediate reports of incidents or injuries during the march, which followed smaller demonstrations over the weekend that led to nearly 300 arrests.
Four police helicopters buzzed overhead during the march.
After weeks of legal wrangling, protesters have been denied the right to march across Central Park, but some had vowed to defy the ban, raising the prospect of a confrontation with police.
Symbolic
The Republican convention is being held just a short distance from the site of the World Trade Center, which was destroyed in the 11 September 2001 attacks - and just a few days before the third anniversary of those attacks.
The date marked the beginning of what the Bush administration calls its war on terror, and the president has made this a centrepiece of his re-election campaign.
But our correspondent says Mr Bush's opponents believe that, by holding the convention in New York, he is exploiting the tragedy for his own political ends.
The president is not due to arrive at the convention until Wednesday.
He will spend one night in New York and accept the Republican nomination as presidential candidate, before heading for the election battlegrounds of Pennsylvania, Ohio and beyond.
The opening day of the convention is reportedly intended to focus on Mr Bush's leadership in the "war on terror", with a tribute to families of the 11 September 2001 attacks.
In addition to Mr McCain and Mr Giuliani, speakers include New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
March Draws Hundreds of Thousands to NY Streets
By Grant McCool, 08/29/2004
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators carrying colorful banners and shouting "no more Bush" took to the streets of New York on Sunday, the day before the Republican convention was to open, to decry the U.S.-led war in Iraq and President Bush's policies.
Organizers for United for Peace and Justice coalition estimated 400,000 people marched for more than five hours in summer heat and humidity. Police declined to estimate the size of the crowd, but it stretched out more than a mile along two main avenues in central Manhattan.
"I am just burning with anger about what our country is doing," said protester Cornelius Boss, an ex-Marine from Columbus, Ohio, about Bush's foreign policy.
Police said there were more than 200 arrests, all but 15 unrelated to the march. There was at least one clash between self-styled anarchists and police along the route, but protesters and police praised each other for mutual cooperation.
A small group of masked anarchists set fire to a float just one block from the Madison Square Garden convention site and hurled bottles at police in riot gear who rushed them and made 15 arrests, police said.
About 500 people have been arrested since anti-Bush protests began Thursday when AIDS activists stood naked in front of Madison Square Garden.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said four police officers were injured in various incidents Sunday.
"As we expected the vast majority of people in the march were peaceful...as far as the march was concerned it went extremely well," Kelly said.
There have been tensions between police and organizers since an anti-war demonstration in February last year when protesters said they were penned in by police barricades. Hundreds were arrested at that rally.
Within an hour of Sunday's march ending, police arrested as many as 60 protesters who went to Times Square theaters to encounter Republican delegates. Thousands also gathered in Central Park in defiance of a city ban on a rally there. They included a comic troupe of clown-faced soldiers in military green jumpsuits.
Hundreds of people lay on the grass in the park and formed a massive human peace sign.
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