Police in the U.S. capital have arrested at least 300 protesters attempt to disrupt the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Beating drums and chanting anti-capitalist slogans, demonstrators staged scattered protests around Washington - attempting to disrupt the meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
Protesters briefly blocked traffic on a busy Washington street before being arrested by police.
Some demonstrators broke windows at a bank, but for the most part the protests were peaceful.
"Well the objective of today's demonstrations is to take a strong stand against capitalist greed," explained a protester. "We are here today to protest many of the atrocities we see in our current world from people being in poverty in the richest country in the world, starving, being homeless, to the war that is going to be perpetuated against Iraq."
About 3,000 police officers are on duty and officials are vowing to arrest any protesters who are violent.
The United States is hosting a meeting of the world's seven most industrialized countries Friday and delegates from the IMF and World Bank are meeting Saturday and Sunday.