With Additional Reporting By Yahya Abou Zakaria, IOL Sweden Correspondent

WASHINGTON, October 26 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Thousands of anti-war activists prepared to march in Washington Saturday to protest any U.S.-led strike on Iraq, as the UN Security Council remained stalemated over a tough U.S. draft resolution on disarming Baghdad.

The council, which will resume talks on the draft Monday after a weekend break, was under heavy pressure from President George W. Bush, who said the United States would take action if the United Nations fails to do so, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

In Washington, organizers said some 100,000 protesters would show up to voice their opposition to military action against Iraq, promising the largest anti-war demonstration since the Vietnam era in the early 1970s.

However, Washington police spokesman Quentin Peterson said the protesters requested a permit for only 20,000.

"The people of the United States can stop the war. They have done it before and they can do it now," said Mara Verheyden-Hillard, one of the organizers.

Event speakers are to include rights advocate Jesse Jackson, former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark and Representative Cynthia McKinney of Georgia.

"We feel this war is unjustified and unjust," said Michel Shehadeh, another organizer, who represents a pro-Palestinian group.

Clark, U.S. attorney general from 1967 to 1969 under then-president Lyndon Johnson, has traveled to Baghdad frequently to protest U.S. sanctions.

Similar protests were scheduled in San Francisco and Chicago, as well as in Mexico, Japan, Spain, Germany, South Korea, Belgium and Australia, said the Washington organizers, a coalition of anti-war, social justice and civil rights groups.

At the United Nations on Friday, U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte had the council secretariat publish a draft resolution as an official document at the start of the day's talks, a step usually taken just before a vote.

But diplomats said it appeared to be a procedural maneuver to prevent any other member getting in first with an alternative draft, and noted that the text could still be amended.

"We went through our draft with other members of the council. We heard their views and we are going to take them on board," U.S. Deputy Ambassador James Cunningham said.

Council members were to be briefed by chief UN arms inspector Hans Blix on Monday.

Bush warned he would reject any resolution curbing his ability to force Iraq to disarm.

"We won't accept a resolution which prevents us from doing exactly what I have told the American people is going to happen," Bush said at a joint appearance in Texas with visiting Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

"If the UN won't act, and if Saddam won't disarm, we will lead a coalition to disarm him," he said, referring to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

According to CNN, the anti-war activists plan an anti-war referendum as well, with signed petitions and votes via computer on the Web site www.votenowar.org.

In Cairo, hundreds of Egyptian students rallied at Cairo University Saturday to protest U.S. policies on Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Organizers said some 3,000 demonstrators took part, but police put the number at just 1,000.

"Down with America, down with Israel," the protestors chanted, demanding an end to the diplomatic relations between Egypt and Israel established following the 1979 Camp David agreement.

Demonstrations on the streets have been banned here since a state of emergency was imposed after the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat, but they are generally tolerated at mosques and university campuses.

In Berlin thousands demonstrators gathered carrying placards that declared "War on the imperialist war," "Stop Bush's campaign" and "No blood for oil," along with a few Iraqi and Palestinian flags. They converged on the downtown Alexanderplatz square and marched past the German Foreign Ministry.

Police estimated that up to 8,000 people took part in damp, windy weather, while organizers put the number at 30,000.

Some 1,500 people turned out in Frankfurt and another 500 in Hamburg, according to police, while another 1,500 rain-soaked demonstrators gathered under umbrellas outside the U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark and more than 1,000 hit the streets in Stockholm, Sweden, news agencies reported.

In Stockholm, thousands of demonstrators defied the heavy rain and cold weather and gathered to show their opposition to the war planned by the United States against Iraq.

Swedish, Palestinian, and Iraqi flags were raised by the demonstrators who were both from the Arab and Muslim communities as well as Swedes. The demonstrators denounced the American policies and changed slogans against the U.S. “colonial plans”.

They called on the Swedish government to stand against the U.S.’s policies and to play a role through the EU to put a stop to it. The demonstrators also called on the United Nations to stop being a follower of the U.S. and not to give the U.S. the green light to start it’s war against Iraq and to recreate geography.

In Baghdad itself, American anti-war activists protested in front of U.N. offices, urging the U.N. Security Council not to give Bush a blank check for war against Iraq. Six members of the Chicago-based Voices in the Wilderness raised banners including "Drop sanctions not bombs."