The 24-kilometre (14-mile) march from the Umbrian capital Perugia to the town famous as the burial place of Saint Francis of Assisi was boycotted by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party which claimed the march was a vehicle for left-wing criticism of the government.

Forza Italia spokesman Sandro Bondi said he would pray for peace at the saint's tomb instead.

Some marchers carried a banner declaring "For a Europe of Peace" while many others carried UN and rainbow-coloured peace flags.

Many young people played guitars, banged drums and sang peace songs as they marched.

One section of the crowd was blanketed by a huge rainbow-coloured peace flag as they walked.

In a message to the marchers, Pope John Paul II said Europe should become synonymous with peace.

"As a youth, I could see from personal experience of the drama of a Europe deprived of peace," said the message from the 83-year-old pontiff, which was read out by Bishop Sergio Goretti of Assisi.

"This pushed me even more to work tirelessly so that Europe could rediscover the solidarity of peace and become, with the other continents, a creator of peace, inside and beyond its borders."

Marchers also heard a message from Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi via the independent Italian television channel La 7, which carried the event live.

"Yours is a road towards peace and the rights of man and of peoples," Ebadi told the television channel.

The leaders of a broad swathe of left-wing parties signed a petition demanding that Article 11 of the Italian constitution, which repudiates war as a way of resolving international conflicts, be absorbed into the European Union's first constitution.

Officials from the 25 current and future EU states last week opened final discussions on the constitution, which are expected to take months.

Vittorio Agnoletto, one of the leaders of the Italian anti-globalisation movmement, said he was marching to protest the involvement of EU states in Iraq.

"The administration in that country must first be put in the hands of the UN so that elections can be held under which these people can govern themselves," said Agnoletto.

WAR.WIRE