BAGHDAD, Iraq - On New Year's Eve in Baghdad, children marched through the streets chanting anti-war slogans, visiting American Christians prayed for peace, and Iraq invited the chief of U.N. weapons inspectors to visit in hopes of averting a war that the United States and Britain threaten to wage in 2003.

Members of a U.S. peace organization release a white dove on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2003 during a demonstration outside the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad. The activists called for a peaceful solution for the Iraq crisis and expressed their rejection of any attack on Iraq. (AP Photo/Jassim Mohammed)

But the anti-war mood Tuesday in the Iraqi capital also had a distinct anti-American tinge. As hundreds of Iraqi child marchers let loose white pigeons as a symbol of their hope for a tranquil year ahead, many chanted "Down with America, enemy of peace."

For U.N. inspectors searching for forbidden arms that Iraq might be hiding, it was a normal day in which they visited seven sites, including a plant manufacturing short-range missiles and a medical research center.

Iraq invited Hans Blix, the chief of the U.N. inspectors, to come to the country in the next few weeks, expressing hope that questions still remaining about Iraq's lethal weapons could soon be resolved and head off a U.S. threat to wage war if Iraq does not prove it has given up all its weapons of mass destruction.

A letter to Blix from Amir al-Saadi, chief Iraqi liaison to the inspectors, said he hoped their meetings could "review the aspects of cooperation between us during the past period and the prospective to enhance such cooperation in the coming months."

The specter of a possible war remained, however, with Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri protesting to the United Nations over a U.S. air strike last week in which it said three people were killed and 16 wounded. The United States announced U.S. and British warplanes hit again Monday, attacking Iraq air defense facilities after an Iraqi fighter jet penetrated the southern no-fly zone

It was at least the 80th day of 2002 that allied strikes were reported.

Iraqi children hold olive branches as they take part in a children's anti-war rally in Baghdad, Tuesday, Dec. 31 , 2002. Some 1,500 Iraqi children marched to the UNDP office chanting anti-American slogans.(AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

The peace march through Baghdad by an estimated 2,000 children was led by a Syrian actress who uses the single name Raghda and who told the crowd, "What is the new year bringing to Iraqi children? What is Santa Claus bringing them? Bombs?"

The marchers were guided by police and many of their chants and posters echoed Iraqi government slogans. "Bush, Bush listen carefully — we all love Saddam Hussein," was one chant.

But some of the youngsters expressed their own fears along with the sloganeering.

"America wants to strike us to take our oil," 12-year-old Heba Saad said, and then added: "I'm afraid, but God willing, there will be no war."

Eight-year-old Ahmed Hassan Jassim was wrapped in an Iraqi flag and carried a banner that read, "No to war, no to sanctions, no to America." He said his aunt gave him the banner and he had no idea what it meant.

On Tuesday evening, a delegation of American church officials prayed for peace with Iraqi Christians at the Church of St. Mary in downtown Baghdad, and activists from the U.S.-based Iraq Peace Team demonstrated outside the U.N. inspectors headquarters.

One of the church leaders, Jim Winkler, an official of the United Methodist Church, said the visiting religious delegation had found "a human face" to Iraq in its talks with people at schools, hospitals, churches and mosques.

He said he would be taking this message back to the American people: "Remember there are ordinary people in Iraq who want peace as much as you and I do."

Winkler told The Associated Press that he believed church opposition to a war had kept a conflict from starting already and added:

"I believe in my heart we can keep pushing back the prospective date for the war and let the arms inspectors do their work."

An Iraqi boy holds a sign reading 'stop killing child,' as he takes part in a children's anti-war rally in Baghdad on Tuesday, Dec. 31 , 2002. Some 1,500 Iraqi children marched to the UNDP office chanting anti-American slogans. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser )

For many Iraqis, New Year's Eve was only a reminder of the poverty that Iraq and its people had fallen into in the 12 years since economic sanctions were imposed on the country after the Iraqi army invaded Kuwait. The sanctions cannot be lifted until the U.N. inspectors certify that Iraq's chemical, biological and nuclear weapons have been eliminated.

Jinan Abdel Ahad, a 40-year-old housewife, said on a Baghdad street Tuesday that she hoped sanctions would end in the new year so "we and our children" could lead a normal life.

She said she and friends were planning a small party at home, adding "we can't afford to party out."

The story was different in Baghdad's posher districts, where waiters at some restaurants said all tables were booked and shows for the evening included belly dancers, singers and disc jockeys playing the latest hits.

For such an evening, revelers can expect to pay an average of 25,000 dinars ($11) a person, the average monthly salary of a teacher.

The manager of one restaurant was asked how Iraqis still celebrate when the new year could bring war.

"We Iraqis have trained ourselves not to fear and not to care," he said, declining to give his name. "Life goes on and we are living for now, for the moment."

Copyright 2003 The Associated Press

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