BLACKBURN, March 31: Local Muslims and anti-war activists told US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to ‘Go Home’ when British counterpart Jack Straw led her on a tour of his home town on Friday.

Around 250 protesters gathered outside a school which Ms Rice visited, waving placards and shouting as her motorcade arrived during a rare visit to the area by an overseas politician.

Many of them were locals from Mr Straw’s constituency of Blackburn, a former cotton town in the industrial northwest with a 20 per cent Muslim population. Mr Straw invited Ms Rice to the area after he toured her home state of Alabama last year.

The trip has been unpopular among some Muslims and left wing activists, who have already persuaded a mosque in the town to withdraw its invitation to her.

“The Muslim population is very angry. She’s not welcome in Blackburn,” said Mr Suliman, one of the demonstrators outside Pleckgate school.

“My message to Rice and Straw is that they should get all their troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan,” said the 61-year-old Muslim.

“How many lives per gallon?” asked one of the placards held aloft, in reference to the U.S. invasion of oil-rich Iraq.

Ms Rice played down the protests, saying everyone had the right to vent their feelings.

“I would say to those who wish to protest: ‘by all means’,” she said during a visit to a British Aerospace factory.—Reuters