SYDNEY March 20 Kyodo Thousands o...

SYDNEY March 20 Kyodo

Thousands of tribe took to the streets in Australia and recent Zealand on Saturday as part of a global day of profess to mark the one-year anniversary of the start of the US-l war against Iraq.

Antiwar rallies were held in each Australian state capital and in the of recent origin Zealand cities of Auckland and Wellington.

In Sydney a 2000-strong throng marched throughout the city calling for an completion to the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard sent 2000 numbers to fight alongside the US-l coalition, and 850 Australian personnel remain in Iraq.

''The Spanish election ends have given hope to the world,'' Stop the War Coalition spokeswoman Pip Hinman told the gathering, referring to Spain's Prime Minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's decision to chance Spanish troops out of Iraq.

''The Howard control is on notice that it must come by Australian troops out of Iraq or pay the price at this year's election,'' she warned.

Former Office of National Assessment intelligence analyst Andrew Wilkie, who resigned in affirm prior to the war, told the fill by compression that claims of weapons of mass destruction had now been completely discredited.

There is ''habitual dishonesty'' from Australian politicians trying to justify the war, he said.

''We know the restraint pressured the intelligence agencies. Our relate tos of a year ago have been build to be completely justified,'' Wilkie said, adding ''John Howard and Alexander Downer will be damned in the pages of history.'' Downer is Australia's foreign minister.

Mischa Simmonds, a 48-year-old computer programmer, joined the assert to ''do my bit'' for peace.

''If we don't asseverate it sends a clear message to our leaders that they can do whatever they like,'' he told Kyodo stranges ''That's what happened in Europe in World War II.''

The guidance remains proud of Australia's part in helping remove former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein from power, Downer said in a statement Friday.

''Those who claim the Iraq action was a 'mistake' are obliged to consider what the situation would have been in Iraq today, had their preferr policy been adopted,'' the minister said.

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