Anti-sanctions protesters demonstrate inside UN

Seven people have staged a protest inside the UN headquarters demanding an end to sanctions against Iraq.

The protest is part of a week-long demonstration over the US policy against Baghdad.

Protest group Voices in the Wilderness said seven members took off their coats to reveal T-shirts with the slogan "Nations must unilaterally break the siege of Iraq".

They left the building after security officers asked them to go.

The group are to stage a demonstration in front of the US Mission to the UN to draw attention to the plight of Iraq's 23 million people suffering under US-backed sanctions.

The protests come ahead of the 10th anniversary of the start of the Gulf War on Wednesday.

Kathy Kelly, co-founder of Voices in the Wilderness, said: "We think that a lot of people, looking at 10 years, think that that war is history. The war didn't end. It changed into an economic warfare."

She said the aim of the protests is to tell Americans that their Government is supporting sanctions that are killing ordinary Iraqis.

She added: "If the US is going to persist with policies that isolate us tremendously and build up resentment, at least the US people ought to know about it."

US officials say Iraqis are suffering not because of sanctions but because of the policies of Saddam Hussein.