THE SOUND of more than 100,000 pairs of marching feet is a daunting one.

But those who joined to voice their disapproval at President Bush's UK state visit feared their protests fell on deaf ears.

As George Bush placed a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey, marchers began to gather.

First-lady Laura Bush said UK demonstrations were not as big as anticipated, suggesting Prime Minister Blair's efforts to shield his ally from protests were fairly successful.

As one journalist Simon Jeffery commented: "It was like London on any other day. It was just that every other person you saw was a police officer."

While not reaching the vastness of the "Stop the War" march in February, the crowd here was no less diverse.

The Iraq War was not the sole reason for this demonstration, though it was an incitement. People came to oppose Bush on issues from the environment, to fair trade, to nuclear weapons.

Phil Haines, a 21-year-old Mathematics student, believed Americans deserved a chance to see British public opinion was not on their leader's side. "I'm here because the Iraq war made me angry, but people are here because of other things, like the Kyoto Treaty," he said.

Members of the British Muslim community were also out in force. Sanaa Aqil, a 28-year-old Physics PhD student, was born and grew up in Palestine. "I don't think this will change anything, but it shows there are a large number of people against their foreign policy," she said.

At 2:45pm the march began led by Viet Nam War veteran Ron Kovic, who held a banner reading: "Proud of my country, ashamed of my president."

The kilometres long throng of people poured across central London like a river, occasionally hemmed in by lines of mounted police.

The Socialist Workers Party (SWP), Greenpeace and other activist organizations contributed large numbers to the crowds.

Tom Unterrainer, organizer and SWP member said: "I think it's a turning point in British politics. Blair and Bush have set up this meeting thinking it would be a victory parade, but there are hundreds of thousands of people saying we will resist them, the war and that we want an alternative."

Boos rang out as crowds passed the Houses of Parliament. But the loudest cheer was reserved for the day's finale.

Protesters reached Trafalgar Square around 5:00pm where they were greeted by a huge effigy of George Bush.

Ex-Civil Servant Virginia Walters pushed her son all the way in a pram. The 44-year-old had also taken him to the march in February.

"If when he's older he asked me, what did I do? I couldn't bear to turn to him and say nothing. It wouldn't be setting a good example to him," she said.

As President Bush was entertained by the Queen in Buckingham Palace, protesters toppled the effigy in front of the world's press. The ceremony aimed to mimic the symbolic destruction of Saddam Hussein's statue in Baghdad.

Yet while the event may have struck heart chords in Trafalgar Square it did little to deter Mr Bush and Mr Blair from their goals.

Meanwhile Al-Qaida performed two devastating attacks on British interests in Istanbul.

Both the protesters and British and American leaders highlighted the attacks as supporting their own views.