Young protesters display heart-shaped placards in a bayside protest in the shallow waters off Manila Bay near the U.S. Embassy in Manila on Valentine's Day

MELBOURNE, Australia, February 14 (IslamOnline & News Agencies)- More than a 100,000 anti-war activists marched through central Melbourne Friday, February 14, to oppose a U.S.-led attack on Iraq, in what organizers said was Australia's largest peace rally since the Vietnam War.

The march was the first of a series of planned protests across the country over the weekend, with rallies expected in Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide, coinciding with anti-war rallies around the world, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

The rally began with mock air raid sirens to symbolize air attacks on Baghdad.

Organizers expect millions to turn out around the world in the next two days in one of the biggest anti-war protests ever, with rallies planned in over 600 towns and cities, news agencies reported.

Protesters chanted anti-war slogans and waved placards reading "No War for Oil" and "Will the Pollies' Kids Go to War?"

They were addressed by a range of celebrity protestors and politicians, including Greens Leader Senator Bob Brown.

"This war is not Australia's war," Brown told the crowd.

He said U.S. President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Australian Prime Minister John Howard had no popular support or mandate for war.

The protest was also aimed at Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who this week has held talks at the White House and in London with British Prime Minister Tony Blair regarding Australia's possible role in any military action.

Australia has committed 2,000 troops to war preparations in the Gulf and Howard has been one of Bush's staunchest supporters.

However, opinion polls show one in three Australians oppose war under any circumstances and only six percent of Australians support war against Iraq without United Nations backing.

Friday's rally was organized by churches, peace and student groups and unions.

Police would not immediately put a figure on the size of the crowd, which organizers said exceeded 100,000.

Anti-War Protestors Prepare for Massive March

Wearing a mask representing Bush, a South Korean protester holds an oil barrel at an anti-war rally near the U.S. embassy in Seoul on February 14

Meanwhile, in Berlin, German unions, rights groups, political associations and youth organizations were gearing up Friday for a massive protest in Berlin against a war on Iraq, the biggest peace rally here in a decade, AFP said.

Some 50 groups will lead an expected 80,000 demonstrators Saturday, February 15, in an "Alliance for Action on February 15", part of a day of anti-Iraq war protests planned around the globe.

"It will be the most surprising peace mobilization since the big protests of the 1980s," when the United States deployed missiles in Germany and aimed them at the former Soviet Union, said organizer Peter Strutynski.

Washington, with its push for war against Iraq for allegedly flouting UN Security Council resolutions to disarm, is again the target of the protest, one of several albeit smaller ones held in Germany since the crisis began.

A New U.S. Aggression

The Alliance said in a statement that a war would "represent a further attack on international law by the U.S. government and confirm an aggressive new U.S. strategy of preventative war."

"A new Gulf War would bring further misery, thousands more dead and the destruction of the cities and infrastructure of the Iraqi people," it said.

Police said they were preparing for between 50,000 and 100,000 demonstrators to converge on the capital, which a spokesman said "hasn't been seen since the fall of the Berlin Wall" in 1989.

The march will consist of two parades, one starting symbolically from the eastern part of the city and the other from the west, that will then meet in a mass rally at the historic Brandenburg Gate by mid-afternoon.

According to a representative of the anti-globalization group ATTAC, "500 buses will be used to bring in 50,000 people from all across Germany."

The speaker of the German lower house of parliament Wolfgang Thierse, from the ruling Social Democrats, has promised to take part as has Economic Cooperation and Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul.

The size of the demonstration is a reflection of popular support for the German government's anti-war stance.

An opinion poll published this week showed that 71 percent agreed with it, while only 24 percent thought that Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder should change his position.

Schroeder reaffirmed his strong opposition to war against Iraq on Thursday, February 13, in a speech to parliament.

Tens of thousands of Germans have taken to the streets in largely non-violent protests since the crisis began, with some 17,000 turning out in different cities on Thursday alone.

In the northern port city of Hamburg, 7,000 people formed a candle-lit human chain several kilometers (miles) long.

In Bremen, also in the north, 6,000 to 7,000 people marched in opposition to a war, including thousands of schoolchildren. In the southern city of Wuerzburg, 4,000 people protested.

Around 35,000 turned out in the southern city of Munich last weekend during an international security conference attended by more than 30 foreign and defense ministers including U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Asians To Protest War

In Hong Kong, hundreds of thousands of anti-war demonstrators throughout Asia were preparing on Friday for a weekend of protests against the looming U.S.-led war in Iraq.

Politicians, activists, celebrities and ordinary citizens alike were set to join rallies as part of a worldwide weekend of protests which organizers hope will send a message of peace to Washington.

In Japan, a demonstration is planned in front of the U.S. Embassy at noon on Saturday and a parade from Tokyo's trendy Shibuya district was scheduled for later in the day.

At noon on Sunday, protesters including high school students will gather at Tokyo's Narita airport before flying to Iraq where they hope to act as human shields against attack.

"I've seen many people there laughing and smiling. They do not hope for a war," said Masaaki Kozaki, a member of the group who has already visited Iraq once. "I wonder, do we have to attack them again?"

Students, professors, artists and Muslims were planning a "March for Peace" through the Philippine capital Manila on Friday that was to end in a candlelight vigil outside the U.S. embassy. Organizers expect 10,000 participants.

"We march to tell President (Gloria) Arroyo: Do not prepare for war," said organizer Allan Jose Arcebuche, a Roman Catholic priest. Arroyo is an open supporter of Bush's war on terrorism.

"The people understand that we have nothing to gain from this war. U.S. aggression in Iraq serves U.S. interests."

Anti-war sentiment has even reached the tiny South Pacific island nation of Fiji, where the Fiji Anti-War Movement (FAWM) sent floral messages to foreign embassies imploring them to pressure the U.S. and its allies to avoid war.

"These flowers are our determined reminder to leaders George W. Bush, John Howard and especially Tony Blair: Don't sacrifice beautiful young lives for your own interests," said FAWM spokesperson Stanley Simpson of the protest in the capital Suva.

The bouquets contained the message "Don't kill love by making war".

Several organizations in Hong Kong, including the Beijing-backed party, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong, staged protests on Friday outside the U.S. consulate. A larger rally outside the U.S. and British consulates was planned for Saturday.

Islamic Asia is also due to mark its opposition to the war. On Saturday, hundreds of Malaysian activists are expected to protests in the capital Kuala Lumpur and on the island state of Penang.

Arutchelvan Subramaniam, of rights group Voice of the Malaysian People, told AFP that organizers would collect anti-war signatures during the gathering to be presented to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

And in Pakistan, the Lahore-based Pakistan Anti-War Committee, a coalition of labor and political groups, says it has protests planned for 20 cities.

In India, Calcutta expected protests, with a rally organized for Saturday by the province's ruling Marxist-led coalition.

"In Europe As Well"

Meanwhile, London is expecting at least 500,000 marchers Saturday in what the organizers say will be a major blow to hawkish Prime Minister Tony Blair -- Bush's strongest supporter in his campaign to force Iraqi disarmament.

Organizers in Rome are also expecting more than 500,000 people to march through the city and a series of demonstrations are planned in Russia for Saturday.

Organizers of a peace march in San Francisco say they expect more than 100,000 to converge on the city Sunday.

Even in traditionally neutral Switzerland a series of protests are planned under the slogan "No to war in Iraq -- No blood for oil!"