LAGOS (AFP) -- Hundreds of youths on Monday protested a parliamentary plan to amend Nigeria's constitution to allow President Olusegun Obasanjo to extend his tenure beyond 2007.

Led by the Youth Alliance for Good Governance (YAGG), the youths staged a peaceful march to the Lagos state parliament where they presented their protest letter to its speaker, Adeyemi Kuforiji.

"The proposed amendment is for the benefit of only one person, the retired General Olusegun Obasanjo," said Sina Loremikan, a spokesman for the protesters, in an address to the crowd.

"We shall do everything possible to frustrate this third-term agenda," said Loremikan, a human rights activist. Adressing the protesters, Kuforiji said: "We must pray for Obasanjo. We do not want him to lead Nigeria to crisis."

The national parliament in Abuja is currently debating a proposal to amend the constitution which would allow Obasanjo to run for a third term at the end of his present mandate.

Under Nigeria's 1999 constitution the president must step down next year after serving two four-year mandates, but his supporters have submitted a bill which they hope will prolong his rule.