'Fahrenheit 9/11' raises heat in Texas

US : Hundreds of people gathered in a rural parking lot near US President George W

US: Hundreds of people gathered in a rural parking lot near US President George W. Bush's Texas ranch on Wednesday to watch Michael Moore's anti-Bush documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11, although the filmmaker cancelled plans to attend.

Sitting before a giant inflatable movie screen, filmgoers from across Texas booed and cheered as Moore's record-setting anti-war film satirically recounted Mr Bush's controversial 2000 election and lambasted the president's response to the September 11th, 2001, attacks and his reasons for going to war in Iraq.

Moore had pledged to come to the screening and had even invited President Bush to attend. However the documentary-maker abruptly pulled out on Wednesday, telling organisers he wanted his movie, not his differences with the Republican president, to be the evening's subject.

"But we're all here tonight," said Mr John Wolf, leader of a Texas network of peace activists which had organised the screening and asked for an $8 donation as admission to benefit a local activist centre called Crawford Peace House.

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Half a mile away, scores of Bush supporters gathered for a rally to show their support for the president. Some were business owners from the Lone Star Parkway, Crawford's main street, which features several presidential souvenir shops.

Mr Bush was on holiday at his 1,600-acre ranch during the Democratic National Convention in Boston which nominated Senator John Kerry for president on Wednesday.

Moore was in Boston during the convention, where he has attracted enormous media coverage.

Some at the Crawford screening booed and cat-called when Moore appeared in the film, wearing his signature baseball hat and blue jeans.

Organisers said they had wanted to bring Fahrenheit 9/11 to Crawford, located about seven miles from Bush's Prairie Chapel ranch, so local people would have the chance to see it, but only a handful of movie-goers from the small town of Crawford were in attendance. There appeared to be twice as many foreign exchange students from Belgium as locals. The pro-Bush rally in Crawford, a traditionally Democratic town with a population of 705, also attracted many from outlying areas, including ranchers.

"There aren't many people in Crawford, so whenever you have a large crowd, most people will be from some place else," said Crawford police chief Donnie Tidmore.

The two camps confronted each other briefly beside the entrance to the outdoor theatre where a middle-aged Moore supporter encountered several young anti-Moore protesters holding a cloth sign that read: "Fahrenheit 9/11: Moore Liberal B.S."

"Name the lies in Michael Moore's film. None of you can," the Dallas musician Rick Charles, challenged the youths.

Fahrenheit 9/11, which has earned more than $100 million in just over a month to become the most successful documentary ever made, has been seen by more than 16 million people.

Moore has said he hopes the film will help oust the president from office in the election on November 2nd. Fahrenheit 9/11 has been banned in Kuwait because it is considered to be insulting to the Saudi Arabian royal family and critical of America's invasion of Iraq, an official said yesterday.