Protesters clash with police at G20 meeting

MELBOURNE, Nov 18: A protest against a global meeting of top economic officials turned violent today when activists overturned a police barricade, threw bottles and broke into a police riot truck, smashing its windows.

The main body of the protest of up to 5,000 people was peaceful, with a carnival-like atmosphere as a diverse group of protesters chanted slogans such as ''Stop G20'' and ''Troops out of Iraq'' at a meeting of the Group of 20 economic powers.

About 20 protesters dressed in white overalls and hoods, their faces covered, moved from one barricaded district to another and confronted police.

They smashed windows and emptied garbage into a police riot truck that was part of a barricade around the city centre hotel where finance ministers and central bankers were meeting.

Riot police charged the small group with batons, but no immediate arrests were made, a Reuters witness said.

The clashes took place well away from hotel where the meeting took place.

Police locked down parts of Australia's second biggest city to stop protesters reaching the two-day meeting, after violent anti-globalisation protests marred a World Economic Forum in Melbourne in 2000.

The G20 represents 20 industrialised and developing nations, from economic powerhouses the United States and China to developing states Mexico and Indonesia. It meets annually to discuss world economics and trade.

REUTERS

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