Dean Yates and Jerry Norton, Jakarta – Demonstrators took to the streets on Friday in 10 cities in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, to protest against US-led attacks on Iraq as clerics savaged President George Bush in mosque sermons.

But a senior Western diplomat said the possibility of demonstrations getting out of control worried him the least among several key security concerns in Indonesia because of "the commitment of the government to make sure that law and order are going to be upheld." "The government has made it clear that the demonstrations... are to be peaceful and that they will not tolerate violence and I take them at their word," the diplomat, who declined to be identified, told reporters.

The biggest of Friday's protests was in the industrial city of Surabaya, where 2,000 people marched. Some pasted signs on a McDonald's outlet, saying the restaurant had been "sealed", one witness said. There were few people inside at the time. In the West Java capital Bandung, dozens of protesters put similar signs on the windows of several American food outlets, a witness said. Patrons ignored the move and kept eating.

There were small rallies in eight other cities across the world's most populous Muslim country, local radio reported.

Several hundred demonstrators took to the streets in Jakarta in the second day of protests here. Muslim students threw eggs, tomatoes and other fruit at the wall of the British embassy.

President Megawati Sukarnoputri said on Thursday the government fiercely opposed the US-led attack on Iraq, and called for a special UN Security Council meeting aimed at stopping the war.

"Our representatives in the United Nations have consulted with the friends of Indonesia who are members of the Security Council ... The crucial thing now is to follow up this American aggression by stopping it," foreign affairs spokesman Marty Natalegawa said on Friday.

Government line disputed

But speaking at Jakarta's popular Al-Azhar mosque, cleric Anwar Ratnaprawira disputed the line taken by the government and mainstream Muslim groups that the war was not aimed at Islam. "We see how the United States is invading Iraq ... a superpower attacking a weak country. These people will not stop waging war against Islam," a grim-faced Ratnaprawira said at Friday prayers.

"Oh, God, please help your Muslim followers and punish anyone who is hostile to Islam. I don't like Saddam and his secular party but Muslims are victims of this infidel bombardment," he added, referring to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

At the capital's imposing Istiqlal mosque, the country's largest, cleric Didin Hafiuddin in his sermon said the United States would one day regret its actions. "What these arrogant nations can do is only spread war and anguish. They will face their own destruction," Hafiuddin told tens of thousands of worshippers.

Indonesia, generally a US ally, has long opposed any attack against Iraq. Political and religious leaders have warned that a strike could spark a widespread, possibly violent backlash.

Some militant groups have threatened to occupy and shut down facilities of the United States and allies like Britain and Australia, and engage in "sweeps" in which foreigners are threatened and told to leave the country.

But the senior diplomat said given the "ability and obvious will of the government to provide protection for foreigners in general [and for] diplomatic facilities, and the peaceful nature of the demonstrations to date, we have a fair amount of confidence that we're going to be OK." He said aside from demonstrations, his key security concerns were that Iraqi agents could try to instigate violent incidents and the continued threat of attacks from Jemaah Islamiah, a Southeast Asian militant network, and al Qaeda, the global network to which it has been linked.

Jemaah Islamiah has been blamed for the October bombings in Bali which killed more than 200 people, most of them foreigners.

[With reporting by Achmad Sukarsono and Devi Kausar.]