Thousands of anti-war activists are preparing to march here to protest any US-led strike on Iraq, as the UN Security Council remained stalemated over a tough US draft resolution on disarming Baghdad.The council, which will resume talks on the draft Monday after a weekend break, was under heavy pressure from President George W. Bush, who said the United States would take action if the United Nations fails to do so.

In Washington, organizers said some 100,000 protesters would show up Saturday to voice their opposition to military action against Iraq, promising the largest anti-war demonstration since the Vietnam era in the early 1970s.

However, Washington police spokesman Quentin Peterson said the protesters requested a permit for only 20,000.

"The people of the United States can stop the war. They have done it before and they can do it now," said Mara Verheyden-Hillard, one of the organizers.

Event speakers are to include rights advocate Jesse Jackson, former US attorney general Ramsey Clark and Representative Cynthia McKinney of Georgia.

"We feel this war is unjustified and unjust," said Michel Shehadeh, another organizer, who represents a pro-Palestinian group.

Clark, US attorney general from 1967 to 1969 under then-president Lyndon Johnson, has traveled to Baghdad frequently to protest US sanctions.

Similar protests were scheduled in San Francisco and Chicago, as well as in Mexico, Japan, Spain, Germany, South Korea, Belgium and Australia, said the Washington organisers, a coalition of anti-war, social justice and civil rights groups.

At the United Nations on Friday, US Ambassador John Negroponte had the council secretariat publish a draft resolution as an official document at the start of the day's talks, a step usually taken just before a vote.

But diplomats said it appeared to be a procedural maneuver to prevent any other member getting in first with an alternative draft, and noted that the text could still be amended.

"We went through our draft with other members of the council. We heard their views and we are going to take them on board," US Deputy Ambassador James Cunningham said.

Council members were to be briefed by chief UN arms inspector Hans Blix on Monday.

Bush warned he would reject any resolution curbing his ability to force Iraq to disarm.

"We won't accept a resolution which prevents us from doing exactly what I have told the American people is going to happen," Bush said at a joint appearance in Texas with visiting Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

"If the UN won't act, and if Saddam won't disarm, we will lead a coalition to disarm him," he said, referring to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Veto-wielding permament security council members France and Russia are pushing for a two-step UN process that would not allow the automatic use of force against Iraq should Saddam fail to comply fully with inspections.

In Baghdad, Iraq's ruling Baath party urged Security Council members to thwart the draft resolution, charging its unrealistic conditions served merely as a pretext for a US attack on Saddam Hussein's regime under a UN cover.

PHOTO CAPTION

Secretary General of United Nations Kofi Annan makes a statement as he arrives at UN headquarters where the Security Council is holding talks on Iraq Friday, Oct. 25, 2002. (AP Photo/David Karp)