By Shasta Darlington
ROME (Reuters) - Waving banners and ringing church bells, thousands of Italians flocked to peace rallies across the country on Saturday to protest against a possible U.S. military strike on Iraq.
Anti-war groups said demonstrators in 100 cities from the financial hub of Milan to the tip of the Italian boot participated in the protests.
Thousands of people streamed through the historic centers of Milan, Florence, Bologna, Catania and Bergamo in the morning and many thousands more took to the streets of Rome in the evening.
"Against the war without ifs or buts!!" one Milan banner declared as swarms of students marched through the streets.
"This protest gives a clear message without any doubt that we are against this war and against wars in general," said Luca Corradini, a student leader.
In Rome, a group of women hand-cuffed together headed a massive march to the capital's historic Piazza Venezia.
Union leaders, left-wing politicians and anti-globalization groups led protests in Sicily and Naples, other marchers burned flags and monks rang church bells in Florence to show their support for the demonstrators.
It was not immediately clear how many people turned out for the protests.
President Bush ( news - web sites) is lobbying for a tougher United Nations ( news - web sites) resolution against Iraq, saying President Saddam Hussein ( news - web sites) should be removed because he is trying to build an arsenal of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.
Iraq denies the charges and recently agreed to let U.N. arms inspectors into Iraq to search for illegal weapons.
Unlike Germany and France, the Italian government has been supportive of Bush.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi recently told parliament that Rome had a duty to support U.S. diplomatic and military efforts to disarm Iraq and said he would not flinch from conflict if that were the only way to disarm Baghdad.
But many Italians oppose the idea of conflict.
"The interests of Bush are not to bring about peace or stabilize an unstable situation. Bush's interests are military and economic" student leader Ambra Zeni said on Saturday.
The U.S. embassy in Rome issued what it calls a "warden message," warning American citizens to avoid large crowds on Saturday due to the protests for fear they could turn "unruly."
The demonstrations were for the most part peaceful, although a group of protesters briefly occupied the British consulate in Venice to protest London's support for Bush.
In Rome, a group of some 60 women held a sit-in at the U.S. embassy, where they were outnumbered three-to-one by police.