Conflict involvement 'a disgrace'

The oldest and youngest people on the original march five years ago in London joined a delegation handing in a letter to 10 Downing Street calling for British troops to be withdrawn.

Leaders of CND, the Stop The War Coalition, MPs and peace activists including Bianca Jagger, walked up Downing Street to hand in the letter to Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Kate Hudson, chairwoman of CND said: "Tony Blair became exceptionally unpopular because of his lies over Iraq. We had great hope that Gordon Brown would pull the troops out and recognise the huge majority of public sentiment against the occupation.

"But five years on we are still waiting for a British Prime Minister to act."

The group handed in a letter which said it was a "disgrace" that the Government continued to participate in the conflict in Iraq.

Referring to the march five years ago, the letter read: "We said then that the war would be a disaster. Everything we said has been proved to be true. The destruction of Iraq continues, its people are still suffering bombings and atrocities, as many as one million have died as a result of the occupation and millions have been driven from their homes."

Meanwhile, anti-nuclear activists from across the world are to attend a conference in the UK this weekend, marking the 50th anniversary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

The two-day Global Summit event, at London's City Hall, will include speeches by United Nations Disarmament Affairs Representative, Ambassador Sergio Duarte, Bianca Jagger and experts from several countries including Pakistan and the United States.

CND said world opinion increasingly recognised that nuclear weapons were a global security problem that could only be solved through disarmament.