LONDON, Nov. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- Tens of thousands of people across Britain are due to gather in central London on Thursday to protestthe state visit by US President George W. Bush.

    The daily protests during Bush's visit ending Friday are widelythought as the price British Prime Minister Tony Blair has to pay for following Bush's lead into the war with Iraq.

    Bush and Blair are expected to discuss a range of issues including the Iraq war, Guantanamo Bay detainees and trade issues including steel tariffs Thursday morning.

    An estimated 100,000 protesters are expected to gather at 1200 GMT and go past Downing Street, parliament and Whitehall to Trafalgar Square where the rally will culminate in the toppling ofan 18 feet effigy of Bush.

    However, police said they are prepared to deal with protesters from smaller groups who are likely to try to break through security cordons or stage traffic sit-downs. Roads will be closed from 1200 GMT.

    In a separate demonstration, chained protesters dressed in orange boiler suits will be outside Downing Street to express anger at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

    Members from a number of anti-war groups from France, Italy, Germany, Russia and other European countries earlier announced they would travel to London to join Thursday's protest.

    The Stop The War coalition, a major anti-war protest organizer in Britain, said it hopes Thursday's march will become the biggestone during the Bush visit and hopefully the biggest-ever workday demonstration in the country.

    Charles Kennedy, leader of Britain's second largest opposition Liberal Democratic Party, and London Mayor Ken Livingstone are among the high-profile politicians who have voiced their support for the anti-Bush protests.

    President Bush is an unpopular figure in Britain. A survey by The Times showed only one in four voters approved of his handling of the Iraq war.

    Moreover, half of those surveyed believed Blair's close alliance with Bush has been bad for Britain.

    However, many protesters stressed that they are not against theUnited States or its people, but against Bush only.

    "There was not one iota of anti-Americanism within my ample viscera, but I was totally opposed to the belligerence of the current American administration," said Peter Kilfoyle, a Labor Party lawmaker from Liverpool area, northwestern England, and alsoa former defense minister.

    "It is not knee-jerk anti-Americanism which holds away in the UK. It is the reaction of one old friend to another when the latter is acting wholly unreasonably and unacceptably," he explained.

    "I like America, I like Americans. But I don't like George (W.)Bush, I don't like his foreign policies," said a middle-aged man who chained himself in the Resist Bush Tea Party rally on Wednesday.

    With Britain's general elections being only one and a half years away, Blair will hardly be able to shift the voters' attention to domestic issues to quell the dissatisfaction of various political forces, local media have warned.

    Bush's three-day visit is reportedly mainly aimed at lobbying help from his ally amid escalating violence in Iraq against US troops and mounting outcry for a quick transfer of sovereignty to Iraqis. Enditem