DAVOS, Switzerland, January 24 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - As global business leaders and politicians met for a second day at the World Economic Forum, demonstrators gathered on the Swiss ski resort of Davos on Friday, January 24, to demand changes to economic policies and action to halt the threat of war on Iraq.

They were joined by thousands of protesters around the world who marked the start the world's largest anti-globalization event in Porto Alegre, Brazil -- timed to protest the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.

The World Social Forum, which seeks to act as a counter-weight to the meeting of the world's top business and economic leaders at a ski resort in Davos, Switzerland, is in its third year, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

Both events have focused attention on growing fears of war with Iraq and concerns of a possible global economic crisis and were accompanied by anti-globalization and anti-war rallies during which thousands of protestors took to the streets on Thursday.

Tens of thousands of activists from around the world were at the opening event at the Catholic University in this southern Brazilian city, many waving anti-war banners.

Organizers said 100,000 activists from 157 countries would take part in the six-day gathering.

"We are here to say no to war, yes to peace, (and) 100 percent cancellation of the debt of poor countries," said Njoki Njoroge Njehu of Kenya, one of the opening speakers, from the 50 Years is Enough network.

The inaugural event focused on opposition to a possible Iraq conflict. The delegations from Iraq, as well as another representing U.S. peace activists, were warmly received.

Activists waved two large Iraqi flags and carried a photo-montage that compared U.S. President George W. Bush to Hitler with the caption "Down with the imperialist war on Iraq."

Groups representing Palestinians and pro-peace Israelis were also warmly received.

At the opening ceremony, organizers released a survey of 15,000 people in 15 countries that found six in 10 people believe social issues should take precedence over globalization and economic growth.

"The survey shows how in tune we are with the thoughts of society, with ordinary people, and it shows us that this is a movement we must believe in," said Candido Grzybowski, one of the poll's organizers.

The forum's star speaker will be Brazil's new left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. A former metal worker and union leader, Lula is scheduled to speak Friday.

Lula is then scheduled to fly to Switzerland and speak Sunday at the Davos economic forum. He said he would take the same message of the need to fight hunger and social inequality to both gatherings.

"Just as a new social contract is needed in Brazil, a global pact is needed to reduce the distance between rich countries and poor countries," Lula said in a statement.

"It's unacceptable that at the start of a new millennium, millions of human beings have nothing to eat."

Lula said his message to world economic and business leaders will be that "rich nations need to distribute the planet's wealth."

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, currently facing a lengthy opposition-driven general strike, is scheduled to speak Sunday.

Ministers from other major governments, including French Education Minister Luc Ferry, will also be in Porto Alegre.

About 30,000 people have set up a camp in the center of Porto Alegre where organic food is served and the sun and moon are the emblems on specially-minted currency to circulate for the duration of the forum.

Meanwhile scores of homeless Brazilians, supported by foreigners at the event, took over vacant land in downtown Porto Alegre, setting up banners and makeshift bamboo structures covered with plastic tarps.

Sixteen poor families under threat of being evicted called for the occupation, protest leader Cintra Edymar said.

Meanwhile, the World Economic Forum began a second day in Davos on Friday with U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft calling for greater international cooperation on counter-terrorism measures, AFP said.

The Forum was also due to focus on the impact on the global oil market of a possible U.S.-led war on Iraq and economic prospects for regions of the world.

Senior ministers from Iraq's neighbour Turkey and oil-rich Kazakstan, the head of oil cartel OPEC, and the bosses of Saudi oil giant Aramco and Russian oil firms Yukos and Tyumen were also due to meet on Friday.

There will be closed-door discussions in Davos on Friday on "the correlation between oil and conflict", the effect of the Iraqi crisis on oil prices and what the west can do to stabilise relations with the Islamic world.

Britain's Guardian newspaper on Thursday reported the U.S. State Department as saying oil was the "number one issue" and that the U.S. military had drawn up plans to protect Iraq's oilfields in the event of a war to prevent Iraqi President Saddam Hussein setting them ablaze.

Iraq, which has the second biggest known oil reserves in the world, could produce four times their current production of 1.5 million barrels a day with the right investment and control, experts told the paper.

Other meetings in Davos will address the economic prospects for the struggling U.S., the enlarging European Union, ailing Japan, booming China and an African continent that is still largely excluded from the global trading system.

Four African presidents are billed to attend and four Latin American heads of state, including Eduardo Duhalde of Argentina, which last week struck a deal with the International Monetary Fund to roll over 6.6 billion dollars (euros) of its debt to the IMF.