WASHINGTON Activists on Thursday marked the first anniversary of huge protests in Seattle, Washington, which shocked a WTO ministerial conference and galvanized a worldwide movement against economic globalization.

Demonstrations and teach-ins were planned in Seattle to celebrate what militants claim was a clear victory over the World Trade Organization and its corporate-driven regulations, which they say harm the poor and degrade the environment.

Here in the U.S. capital, activists were scheduled to gather outside the offices of the International Monetary Fund to stage a "counterreception" as local officials and IMF dignitaries inaugurated a new facility.

The IMF and its sister institution, the World Bank, have also been targeted by foes of globalization in the aftermath of Seattle, where tens of thousands of human rights, environmental and trade union activists laid siege to a WTO ministerial meeting from November 30 to December 3 last year.

The size and militancy of the protests stunned U.S. and Seattle authorities and unnerved delegates to the long-awaited gathering, which had been called to forge an agenda for a new round of trade liberalization talks that they hoped would materialize this year.

The meeting eventually collapsed for reasons, organizers insisted, that had nothing to do with the violent street demonstrations.

In their heavily guarded convention center, ministers did indeed squabble among themselves, unable to set aside national priorities in order to reach consensus on a new trade agenda.

Since Seattle, WTO members have yet to iron out their differences. Pascal Lamy, European Union trade commissioner, on Monday acknowledged that a fresh bid to hold a new trade round was not on the horizon.

"I also note that the necessary political energy for such a project of globalization has diminished," he told AFP.

While the wto remains in apparent disarray, the antiglobalization drive has gathered steam, activists say.

"In the past year, the Seattle coalition has grown here and abroad, with protests and events occurring wherever the corporate globalization agenda is promoted," said Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, a body founded by Ralph Nader.

"The joy of it is there is no team of roving organizers," she said. "Each of the protests ... comes from informed, activated local residents."

At another, larger IMF-World Bank gathering in Prague last September, some 12,000 people turned out to protest the policies of the two institutions.

Similar demonstrations have been held since Seattle in Geneva, London, Adelaide, Cincinnati and elsewhere.