More than 1,000 opponents of the US-British war on Iraq protested near Hillsborough Castle, where US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair began a two-day summit. Barred by police from approaching the 17th century Georgian manor house -- the official residence of Britain's minister for Northern Ireland and situated about 10 kilometers (six miles) south of Belfast -- the demonstrators made their feelings known in the parking lot of a shopping center, where journalists covering the summit had converged.

"We're here to express our opposition to the war in Iraq," Bairbre de Brun, the Sinn Fein education minister in the now-suspended Northern Ireland Assembly, told AFP.

"We've been centrally involved in this (Belfast) peace process trying to find a way forward through dialogue.

"The lessons learnt here should have been used to deal with the situation in Iraq," added de Brun, whose party is the political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), Northern Ireland's main Roman Catholic paramilitary group.

Though the Iraq war is topping the agenda, the Anglo-American summit in Belfast is an opportunity to give a much-needed fillip to the stalled Northern Ireland peace process.

Significantly, the summit is taking place just before Thursday's fifth anniversary of the Good Friday peace accords that led to power sharing in Northern Ireland between Protestants and Catholics.

Thursday is also the deadline for proposals to be set out for restoring Northern Ireland's power-sharing government, suspended last October amid a row over alleged IRA spy activities.

Bush and Blair were to be joined Tuesday by Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern to discuss the Northern Ireland peace process.

The demonstrators had come for Monday's anti-war demonstration from all over Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, in a procession of cars and chartered buses some three kilometers (two miles) long.

They also came armed with banners carrying anti-war slogans. "Iraq is not the enemy," read one, "War is not the answer," said another while others said simply: "No to war."

Wearing a large black cloak, one protester held up a placard with the message: "Bush, Blair and Ahern: talking peace while making war."

An Iraqi exile, who gave his name as Dr Abou, referred to Bush as the "cowboy" and Blair as the "poodle" who were "dining and wining here while the Iraqi people are starving."

Elsewhere, a woman in her 40s held up a placard that said: "Long live France."

"I'm so proud of France, even since before the war, (French President) Jacques Chirac stood against the Americans, when the whole world was afraid of America, that's fantastic," said the woman, who had traveled by bus from Londonderry in the west of Northern Ireland.

PHOTO CAPTION

US President George W. Bush(R) is greeted by British Prime Minister Tony Blair at Hillsborough Castle in Hillsborough, just outside of Belfast (AFP/Luke Frazza)