Some casualties were reported on Friday as security forces struggled to curb anti-war protesters across North America, Europe and Asia, who are getting increasingly strident.

People took to the streets after Friday prayers in several Arab countries and governments were hard pressed to avoid casualties as protestors got violent and attacked security forces in some cities.

People in the United States, the United Kingdom, Egypt, Jordan, India, Belgium, Yemen and several other countries expressed outrage at the US-led assault on Iraq. The protestors did not appear to be endorsing Iraqi President Saddam Hussein though.

The Islamic Association of China on Saturday strongly condemned the military action launched by the US and its allies against Iraq and criticised the US for bypassing the UN Security Council.

"Islam advocates peace and the more than 20 million Chinese Muslims love peace and oppose war," the apex body of Chinese Muslims said in a statement issued in Beijing.

In China, the Muslim community is concentrated in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region in northwest China as well as in the southern Ningxia Hui autonomous region.

A nationwide general strike called to protest the US-led war on Iraq on Saturday shut down predominantly Muslim Bangladesh.

Some 1,500 Indonesian Muslims staged an anti-war rally in the city of Yogyakarta in central Java while about 500 demonstrators held a protest outside the US embassy in Bangkok (Thailand), witnesses said.

Several thousand anti-war protesters took to the streets in Brisbane and Hobart in the third day of protests on Saturday against Australia's participation in the war to topple Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Anti-war protests were also held in New Zealand, where some 4,000 protestors marched on the US embassy in Wellington while several thousand demonstrators held an anti-war protest in an Auckland park.

PTI