SYDNEY -- About 1,000 demonstrators marched through central Sydney on Saturday to oppose Australian involvement in any military action against Iraq.

Chanting "No Blood for Oil" and bearing portraits of Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat, the protestors stretched almost two city blocks as they halted traffic along the city's main thoroughfare George Street.

While a handful of demonstrators who attempted to burn the Israeli Flag during speeches outside Sydney town hall were admonished by protest organizers, police said the march passed peacefully and there were no arrests, AFP reported.

The rally, staged by the no war on Iraq coalition, was addressed by politicians from the opposition Labor, Greens and Democrats parties, trade unionists, church leaders and members of Australia's Arabic communities.

Numbers were well down on organizers' expectations of up to 10,000 but new South Wales Democrats politician Arthur Chesterfield-Evans said it still sent a message to the Australian government about public disquiet at the prospect of war with Iraq.

Chesterfield-Evans claimed the Australian public would not accept military deployment without approval from the United Nations.

"A first strike is not defense, it is attack, it must not happen without UN sanction," he said. "The people of Australia do not want a war and our government must not blindly follow the United States."

The issue of Iraq has split Australian public opinion. A raft of former prime ministers and military brass issued an open letter this week warning Prime Minister John Howard against following the United States into a war on Iraq without explicit UN backing.

Howard has said his government would prefer a diplomatic solution to the standoff over Iraq's alleged buildup of weapons of mass destruction, but has not ruled out joining in a U.S.-led strike even without UN approval.