Sydney protest attracts 10,000

Sydney (Agencies) - Anti-nuclear demonstrators around the South Pacific threw a symbolic wet blanket over France's Bastille Day celebrations with mass protests outside French embassies.

In Sydney, about 10,000 people shouting "Stop French testing" marched to a police-ringed French consulate. Marchers, clogging four city blocks at a time, carried banners reading "Truffles not testing" and "Boycott products of France".

Expatriate Polynesians burned a French flag at a protest south of Sydney and 1,000 people rallied outside a convention centre in Canberra as the French ambassador went ahead with an official reception. An Australian MP presented a 100,000-name petition to the French ambassador calling for testing to stop. Air France cancelled Bastille Day flights from Sydney because of a 24-hour ban by transport workers on French military planes and French airlines .

In New Zealand, about 2,000 protesters dumped manure outside the French ambassador's Wellington residence and heckled the ambassador and luncheon guests by chanting "Liberty, equality, fraternity, hypocrisy". Radical protesters attempted to break into the French consulate in Auckland.

About 2,500 protesters marched on the French embassy in the Fijian capital, Suva, and presented a 50,000-signature petition to the ambassador. Placards read "This is not Hiroshima" and "If it is safe, do the tests under Chirac's nose".

A protest march was banned by the government in Vanuatu, once a part- French territory.