President Bush's motorcade left Myrobella House just before 1pm and headed towards Sedgefield along roads which had been cordoned off by police.

Before then, a number of speakers from the anti-war movement stood in front of the Crosshill Hotel at one end of the village green to address the protesters.

One of them, a Liberal Democrat councillor from Wear Valley, said the protests were not just about the war. Chris Foot-Wood said: ''America isn't just the biggest warmonger in the world, it is also the biggest polluter in the world.''

He added that there were also concerns about the prisoners being held at the American base in Guantanamo Bay.

He said: ''They are there totally illegally and it includes British citizens. I would say this to America: you don't combat terrorism by being a terrorist.'' Lindsey German, a leader of the Stop The War Coalition in London, said about Mr Bush's visit: ''He has been kept under house arrest in Buckingham Palace. ''We had the streets of London yesterday and he was forced to scuttle out of the back door because of those protesters.

This state visit has been a disaster.'' Turning to Mr Blair, she said: ''Why doesn't he do something about schools, about hospitals, and about pensioners?

Until he does this, he is nothing but a hypocrite. He drops bombs around the world.'' John Rees, who is from the same group, told the crowd that one third of the British soldiers who fought in Iraq were from the North East, describing them as ''economic conscripts''.

He added: ''There could be nothing more hypocritical than the rich of one part of the world sending the poor of their part of the world to shoot at the poor of another part of the world.'' He also tried to dispel any suggestion that the protesters were anti-American.

A spokeswoman for Durham Police said there were an estimated 500 people at the demonstration and added that there had been no reported arrests.