600 arrested during protests at IMF meeting

US Treasury Secretary Mr Paul O'Neill told the G7 Finance Ministers that the US economy remained on track for annual growth of 3 to 3.5 per cent by the end of the year and urged the other countries ministers, from Britain, Canada, France, Germany and Italy to outline their plans for economic development.

Over 600 people were arrested during anti-globalisation protests in Washington yesterday, with onlookers and passers-by caught up in sweeps by riot police to clear streets around the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank headquarters.

Anti-globalisation protesters, loosely organised by the Anti-Capitalist Alliance, had hoped to shut down the centre of the US capital to protest during the annual meeting of the IMF and World Bank, but police flooded the city streets and ensured there were only minimal disruptions.

There were skirmishes after the windows of a Citibank office were smashed and smoke bombs thrown at the junction of Vermont and K Streets in the business district. At the sound of breaking glass police pushed back the crowd with long wooden batons and frog-marched protesters to police vans. Some 65 people were later charged with rioting.

"This is not a police state, we have a right to demonstrate," shouted many of those arrested, who were mostly students. Gas masks and jackets littered the pavement after they were driven off. One man shouted as he was handcuffed that he was trying to get to work.

Finance ministers of the Group of 24 developing nations and of the Group of 7 representing the major industrial nations met separately at IMF headquarters yesterday to discuss monetary and finance issues prior to the annual IMF and World Bank meeting.

The Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, is due in Washington this evening and will address the IMF-World Bank meeting tomorrow.

He chided Japanese Finance Minister Mr Masajuro Shiokawa, saying he would ask him to explain the impact "if all of your dreams come true" of Bank of Japan's decision to buy stocks in debt-ridden banks.

IMF Managing Director Mr Horst Koehler said that global prospects had dimmed since spring, "but it would not be productive now to dwell on undue pessimism or doom and gloom". There were still good reasons to expect the recovery to continue in the period ahead. "What we need now is vigilance and measures to rebuild confidence."

The demonstrators, some of them masked, carried black flags, placards and banners protesting against a range of issues, including the Bush administrations' environment policy, corporate greed, debt burdens on developing nations, IMF policies, and war against Iraq.