JAKARTA, Nov 28: Some 8,000 Indonesian Muslims on Sunday staged a peaceful rally against a major US-led assault on Fallujah, which has claimed 2,000 lives since earlier this month.

Protestors marched along Jakarta's main thoroughfares to the United States embassy, chanting anti-American slogans and displaying posters critical of US President George W.Bush.

"How many more people must die because of Bush's lies," read leaflets handed out by the protestors, many of whom were women wearing headscarves and carrying babies. "The US onslaught against Fallujah is an attack against Muslims because they destroyed mosques and killed innocent civilians," a protestor, who gave his name as Abu Ammar, said.

Protestors also distributed leaflets carrying a picture of Bush alongside that of a monkey with a similar facial expression and a caption reading: "What's the difference?"

The rally was organized by the Muslim group, Prosperous Justice Party, an increasingly popular organisation which won 7.34 per cent of votes in this year's legislative elections.

The atmosphere at Sunday's rally was more like a picnic than a street protest, with parents carrying babies and little children taking pictures at Jakarta's landmark welcome statue before marching on to the US embassy.

US and Iraqi forces engaged in the largest post-war military operation in Iraq when they thrust into the guerrilla stronghold of Fallujah to root out Iraqi fighters on November 8. -AFP