About 4,000 Lebanese children chanted "Death to America" in a protest organized yesterday by the militant Hezbollah group.

　　In another daily series of protests across the Mideast since the US-British attacks on Iraq began last week, thousands of Palestinians marched in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, asking Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to attack Israel with chemical weapons.

　　The children marching in Beirut were between 6 and 10 years old.

　　Waving Hezbollah and Palestinian flags, the children shouted "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" as they called for a halt to the US-British attacks on Iraq.

　　A model of a US missile carried by the children read, "Bush's gift to Iraqi children."

　　"Today's march is a show of support from Lebanon's children to children in Iraq and Palestine against American terrorism," Hezbollah media chief Sheik Hassan Ezzedine told The Associated Press.

　　He said they delivered a letter to the UN House in downtown Beirut addressed to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, which demanded the protection of Iraqi children and the halting of the "American aggression" against Iraq.

　　Also yesterday, about 2,000 Lebanese students marched from their school in Sidon to the southern city's main square.

　　Addressing the students, Sidon's legislator Osama Saad praised the Iraqi people's "heroic resistance" and called for a boycott of American and British products.

　　"The American-British invasion will fail in Iraq like the Zionists failed in their occupation of Lebanese territory," he said, referring to Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000, ending an 18-year occupation.

　　Meanwhile, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, in a statement published yesterday, criticized attacks against embassies and foreign cultural and diplomatic missions during anti-war demonstrations, saying such acts do not serve the objectives of protests.

　　In the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Palestinians marched through the streets, holding posters of Saddam and waving Iraqi and Palestinian flags. They stomped over Israeli and US flags placed on the ground.

　　"All of us believe that this is a time that America should be defeated and only he is capable of doing that and bringing back the hope and joy of thousands of families who are victims of Israeli and American terror," said one marcher, Fatima Mukhtar, 55, who wore a headband with the inscription "We Love Saddam."

　　A senior Palestinian Liberation Organization official, Farouk Kaddoumi, told reporters in Damascus, Syria, that the battle for Iraq was the battle for Arab national security.

　　"Everything depends on us," he said. "An Iraqi victory is a must and would save the region from American plans."

　　In Seoul, hundreds of teachers rallied near South Korea's National Assembly yesterday to urge legislators to vote against a government bill authorizing the dispatch of 600 military engineers and 100 medical personnel to support the US-led war in Iraq.

　　"We oppose troop dispatch!" 500 protesters chanted, holding up signs reading "No War!"