Thousands of anti-globalization activists marched through Hong Kong watched by a huge security operation aimed at preventing a repeat of violence that has rocked previous WTO meetings.

Demonstrators from international unions, non-governmental organisations and political parties chanted slogans and waved colourful banners as they took to the streets in a protest coinciding with the start of the World Trade Organisation"s ministerial meeting.

<##IMAGE##>Police used pepper foam to repel several dozen protesters who tried to force their way into a barricaded area around the venue for the WTO meeting, the harbourside Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Under banners that read "WTO Go to Hell", "Junk the WTO" and "Fair Trade For All", some protesters called for the dissolution of the world body while others demanded the talks pay more heed to the poor.

Mock coffins were a popular choice of prop for many, including a group of Indonesian migrant workers who carried one inscribed with the words "WTO Rest in Pieces".

A European contingent hauled a huge poster of US President George W. Bush that bore the slogan "World"s Number One Terrorist".

Flags were carried identifying the nationality of other protesters from Britain, the United States, Belgium and Poland, among others.

Although the crowd that poured out of Victoria Park, in the busy Causeway Bay shopping district, was mainly in a buoyant mood, police were braced for trouble following intelligence reports that radical activists were planning to storm the summit barricades.

Knots of heavily armed police patrolled the march route, which took protesters past some of the most expensive real estate in Hong Kong as well as luxury car dealerships.

Further lines of police and three-metre (10-feet) tall water-filled barricades enforced the 1.5 kilometer (one mile) exclusion zone around the WTO meeting venue.

Stores within the vicinity of the march route were also boarded up in anticipation of violence that marred protests at WTO meetings in the US city of Seattle in 1999.

About 20 demonstrators heckled WTO Director General Pascal Lamy as he opened the six-day meeting, shouting slogans and brandishing signs that read "The WTO kills farmers," "No to the WTO" and "No to the Doha round".

Much of the media"s focus was on some 1,500 militant South Korean farmers who Monday vowed to step up so-far peaceful demonstrations, even warning they had not ruled out suicide.

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At least two Korean farmers have publicly killed themselves during international gatherings to protest against proposed reductions to Korean farm subsidies they say will put rice farmers out of work.

The Koreans began the day"s protest with a lively three-hour rally calling for the collapse of the WTO but the situation turned tense as several dozen tried to push through a line of anti-riot police after setting fire to a wooden coffin.

Police sprayed them with pepper foam as scuffles broke out, injuring seven protesters and several officers, a police official said.

About 100 South Koreans later jumped into the harbour as part of the protest.

"They (the South Koreans) were obviously angry. They didn"t mean to hurt anyone. At least they chose not to do that (fight with police) when the public was around," said protest organiser Elizabeth Tang who put Tuesday"s turnout at more than 5,000.

Earlier, Filipino fishermen staged their own protest on the city"s famous harbour. Two fishermen leapt into the cold and polluted waters holding flags demanding the WTO help Asian fishing communities.

In the leadup to the Tuesday"s protest, the city has been girding itself for trouble. Authorities shut down an entire section around the summit venue and deployed 9,000 officers along with another 1,500 temporary marshals and security guards.

Civic authorities have removed street furniture, fixed loose paving stones and strapped down steel covers over sewage drain grilles. Ordinary Hong Kongers have also been taking no chances. Many stayed away from work to avoid expected traffic congestion.