WASHINGTON, March 17: Thousands of Christians protested in Washington on Saturday to show that the US-led war in Iraq is not a Christian crusade against the Muslims.

Massive anti-war protests are being held across the world this weekend to mark the fourth anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, which officially began on March 20, 2003.

In Washington, the protests began on Friday night with prayers for peace at the National Cathedral.

“Millions of people around the world sadly believe this is a Christian war,” said the Rev. Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners/Call to Renewal, one of the groups sponsoring the event. “We have to clear up the confusion. This war, from a Christian point of view, is morally wrong — and was from the beginning.”

Although Christians are often characterised as supporters of the Bush administration, there are many who oppose the war.

After evening prayers, protesters marched with battery-operated candles through snow and wind toward the White House, where police began arresting protesters shortly before midnight.

About 100 people crossed a nearby park – where thousands of protesters were gathered – to demonstrate on the White House sidewalk. Police began cuffing them and putting them on buses to be taken for processing.

Police said 222 people had been arrested by Saturday morning. The first 100 were charged with disobeying a lawful order, and the others with crossing a police line. All of them were fined $100.

President Bush was away for the weekend at Camp David in Maryland but in his weekly radio address on Saturday, he accused Democrats who are moving anti-war legislation through Congress of using troops as leverage to win domestic political battles.

“Unfortunately, some in Congress are using this bill as an opportunity to micromanage our military commanders (and) force a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq,” he said.

Mr Bush’s rhetoric, however, had little impact on the protesters who have a permit for up to 30,000 people to march from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial across the Potomac River to the Pentagon.

They are emulating the historic 1967 march on the Pentagon to protest the Vietnam War, which became a touchstone event in American history.

Smaller demonstrations are planned in cities across the United States but the success of the demonstration in Washington surprised many who had expected the protest to fizzle out because of a sudden change in the weather.

From warm and pleasant earlier in the afternoon, temperatures in and around Washington suddenly dropped to sub-zero on Friday evening, bringing ice-rain, snow and chilly winds.

A series of anti-war demonstrations are under way across the world, with protests scheduled in countries including Canada, Australia and Britain ahead of the fourth anniversary of the US-led war in Iraq.

The organisers say that the Iraq has turned into a major human tragedy. Even official estimates acknowledge that the war has already claimed at least 70,000 civilian lives and nearly 10,000 lives of soldiers and police officers from Iraq, the US and eight coalition countries.

Unofficial estimates of civilian casualties are much higher.

Although the war has become extremely unpopular in America, the Bush administration is determined to strengthen its military presence in Iraq. On Friday, the US military said it was sending some 2,600 soldiers to Iraq earlier than planned, raising the number of extra US troops being deployed to nearly 30,000.