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Riot police on Thursday rebuffed about 1,500 anti-war demonstrators who temporarily blocked access to the Congress Centre where dozens of presidents, ministers and military leaders were attending the NATO summit. No violence was reported, but at least three demonstrators were detained during the four-hour march through the streets of Prague. The demonstrators marched from nearby streets and squares towards Nuselsky Bridge leading to the Congress Centre. They stood chanting and waving banners for more than an hour across the span from the Congress Centre summit site.

The police, equipped with water cannons and riot gear, stood in front of the bridge until the protesters gave up and marched away. The demonstration was the largest since a coalition of groups called AntiNATO started protests on Tuesday, but far below organisers' expectations. They hoped 10,000 people would rally in Prague, but many would-be protesters from other European countries were turned away at the Czech border.

At a press conference in Prague, US President George W. Bush has urged Iraq's Saddam Hussein to comply with a UN resolution or face the consequences of military action. Speaking after a meeting with Czech President Vaclav Havel on Wednesday, Mr Bush said that Iraq was a threat to peace and indicated that Saddam Hussein could either comply or be disarmed by force. Mr Bush said that NATO allies would discuss the matter during the NATO summit in Prague, which gets underway Thursday. The US president said he will call upon NATO countries to help disarm Iraq if Saddam Hussein refuses to give up the arsenal of deadly weapons which the US says he has stockpiled.

Meanwhile, NATO Secretary General George Robertson said in Prague on Wednesday that the leaders of the 19 NATO member countries will debate the question of a common stance towards Iraq during Thursday's working lunch at the Prague Congress Centre, the main site of summit talks. Lord Robertson added that until then, the NATO Alliance would base its stance solely on the UN Security Council's recent resolution. The secretary general added that if Iraq were to disarm on its own, a military operation would not be necessary.

The first of several planned demonstrations protesting the NATO summit have begun in the Czech capital: in Prague's historic centre some four hundred communist supporters came out Wednesday to rally around communist party leader Miroslav Grebenicek; they carried portraits of communist revolutionaries, the Soviet flag, and banners decrying capitalism. Speaking against the alliance, Mr Grebenicek told listeners that there was no justification for NATO's existence, and equated NATO strikes against Yugoslavia in 1999 with "war crimes". He also called it a disgrace that the NATO summit was being held in Prague at all.

Elsewhere thirty left-wing demonstrators gathered at a Prague square earlier in the day in protest of the summit: an organiser from one protest group, the Initiative Against War, told reporters the demonstration decried the possible military action looming over Iraq. He added his organisation was against violence of any kind. These protesters later joined the communists, making their way throughout the city singing songs and shouting slogans; some of the protestors wore scarves partially covering their faces. Police looked on but did not have to intervene as both demonstrations took place without any violent incidents

Meanwhile, one more protest taking place Wednesday evening is a gathering of anarchists who are using noise to protest the summit outside one of its venues, Prague's Obecni dum, the historic Municipal House, where Czech Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda is holding a special dinner for delegation members in Prague due to the summit. A strong police presence has made itself felt since early in the day, the area is completely blocked off, but police have not had to intervene. A little over two hundred anarchist protestors have gathered so far, beating drums, and using other instruments to cause as much noise as possible. Loudspeakers, delivered by a small truck, have been set-up some three hundred metres from the historic building; so far the protest has gone peacefully. Dozens of photographers, journalists, and TV crews are also at the scene. The anarchists are said to be protesting what they call politicians' disdain to world hunger.