Demonstrators gear up to vent fury at G8 summit

BERLIN (AFP) - An estimated 100,000 protestors from anti-globalization and anti-war groups will march through the northeastern German city of Rostock on Saturday to vent their fury at next week's G8 summit.

As the luxury seaside resort in nearby Heiligendamm prepares to play host to US President George W. Bush and his fellow Group of Eight leaders of the world's wealthiest nations from Wednesday, protestors will launch a week of protests.

Police fear the demonstrations will be hijacked by militants seeking to cause the sort of violence that has scarred past G8 summits, most memorably in the Italian city of Genoa in 2001 when a protestor was killed in clashes with riot police.

Fears of trouble in Rostock heightened when a 5,000-strong protest at a meeting of European and Asian foreign ministers in the northern city of Hamburg this week culminated in pitched battles between masked protestors and police using teargas and batons.