Nowhere was this more evident than in Spain where many people blamed the conservative government's decision to go to war in Iraq for the March 11 Madrid train bombs that killed 200 people.

"The government took the country to war, but it was ordinary people who got hurt and killed by the terrorists," film producer Lila Pla Alemany said on her way to a protest in Barcelona.

Incoming Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has pledged to pull Spanish troops out of Iraq, calling the war a "disaster" and a "fiasco".

In London, two anti-war protesters evaded security to climb the landmark Big Ben clock tower at the Houses of Parliament, unfurling a banner reading "Time for Truth".

"We want to send a clear message to (Prime Minister) Tony Blair that we and the British people are fed up with the half-truths and evasions on Iraq," said Stephen Tindale, executive director of Greenpeace which organised the protest.

Thousands of demonstrators streamed through central London carrying "Wanted" posters bearing the faces of U.S. President George W. Bush and Blair, his main war ally. Banners declared "Make tea, not war".

An anti-war rally in Rome had to start early to relieve pressure on city centre streets groaning with demonstrators.

At least 200,000 people were expected to take part in the protest as 1,500 coaches and 12 special trains brought protesters from around Italy to the capital.

The peaceful protests began in Asia and moved to Europe through the anniversary day. More marches were expected in the Americas later on Saturday. Rallies also took place in Japan, South Korea, India, Bangladesh and Thailand.

NUMBERS DOWN

But there were many fewer demonstrators on the streets than in the mammoth marches that preceded the war.

In Germany, several thousand people took part in demonstrations held in about 70 cities and towns across the country, including some 1,500 at a peace rally in Berlin and another 1,000 outside a U.S. airbase in Ramstein, Germany.

"Happy Birthday Mass Murder", one banner declared.

Some 3,000 people turned out in Sydney, Australia, chanting "end the occupation, troops out" and carrying an effigy of Prime Minister John Howard, a staunch supporter of the war. About 200,000 joined an anti-war protest there last year.

In Melbourne, the father of Australian David Hicks, being held as a terror suspect in a U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, called for justice for his son.

"David, if he has done anything wrong, should have been charged or released two years ago," Terry Hicks told the rally.

In Greece, around 10,000 protesters marched toward the U.S. embassy in Athens which was protected by hundreds of riot police. But numbers were well down from the 100,000 who marched against the war there last year.

An estimated 120,000 took part in protests across Japan, including two rallies in Tokyo that each drew 30,000 people despite cool, wet weather, and two in Osaka that each had 10,000, Kyodo news agency said.

Yasuko Nagasawa, 41, said she feared the presence of Japan's Self-Defence Forces (SDF) in Iraq could make her country a target. "If the SDF stays in Iraq, something like 9/11 will happen in Japan. The troops must come home," she said.

(Additional reporting by Elaine Lies in Tokyo, Paul Eckert in Seoul, Peter Griffiths in London, Karolos Grohmann in Athens, Kirsten Gehmlich in Paris, Kamil Zaheer in Calcutta, Nizam Ahmed in Dhaka)