UNITED NATIONS, Oct 21: A group of young demonstrators invaded the United Nations General Assembly chamber on Monday to protest against a possible war on Iraq and demand an end to UN sanctions.

The group sat in the public gallery chanting “no war in Iraq, end of sanctions, no attack” until they were expelled by security guards.

The assembly was in plenary session at the time, for the election of judges to the International Court of Justice.

The group, comprising about a dozen young men and three women, also chanted “no war for oil”. UN security was unable to say immediately whether the demonstrators would be arrested and charged.

On October 4, security chief Mike McCann called for security to be upgraded at the UN complex after a man jumped over the wall and fired seven shots at the building.

The man, who gave himself up, scattered leaflets protesting against abuses of human rights in North Korea.

Last week, two youths were arrested after scaling the wall into the UN gardens at night. They told security guards they wanted to take each other’s photograph.—AFP