More than 8,000 Sudanese demonstrated here Tuesday, burning an effigy of US President George W. Bush and the US flag in protest at US-led air strikes on Afghanistan, an AFP correspondent reported.
Some protesters held high portraits of suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, while others encouraged him to hit back at the United States, brandishing placards reading "Strike, strike bin Laden" and "Down USA."
They also shouted similar slogans.
Dozens of the protesters drove past the US embassy in buses and pickup trucks shouting anti-US slogans before joining the main gathering of protesters in a square in front of the presidential palace.
The gathering was organised by the recently formed pro-government Popular Organisation for Solidarity with the People of Afghanistan (POSPA), which groups trade unions with youth, students and women associations.
The group's leaders addressed the crowd with fiery speeches denouncing the US while hailing bin Laden -- wanted for the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington -- and Afghanistan's ruling Taliban, which is harbouring him.
Baton-wielding riot police stood at a distance from the gathering and followed the protesters to the UN offices where they allowed 10 POSPA leaders to go inside the premises to hand in a memorandum addressed to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan.
POSPA head Fathi Khalil, a lawyer, had earlier read aloud the memorandum denouncing "the criminal aggression on the Muslim people of Afghanistan."
The memorandum said the international community was "disappointed" at UN silence towards the US strikes, describing them as a "flagrant violation of the UN charter" and calling for Annan's resignation if he fails to demand an immediate ceasefire.
It accused the United States of "rallying its military forces to intimidate the peoples" while firing missiles and dropping bombs "on the heads of the civilian dwellers."
After the memorandum was delivered, Khalil, who is president of the Sudan Bar Association, asked the protesters to disperse peacefully -- Khartoum, (AFP)
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