U.S. & World

ROSTOCK, Germany (CBS) ― Masked demonstrators protesting the upcoming G-8 summit meeting hurled stones and flagpoles at police on Saturday, a spokeswoman said, describing a scene of chaos in the harbor of this northern port city.

Some 13,000 police were on hand, and authorities said about 30,000 protesters had come for the daylong demonstration under the motto "another world is possible."

"There are massive assaults on police officers at the city's harbor right now," said Cordula Feichtinger, a police spokeswoman. "The situation is currently very chaotic and we have to get it under control before I can tell you how many people have been arrested." She said one officer was slightly injured.

Earlier, a group of protesters attacked the hotel where an American delegation was supposed to stay during the G-8 summit this week, and some demonstrators also battered police cars with rocks, bottles and paint bombs, authorities said.

Police helicopters hovered overhead as thousands of demonstrators marched behind a truck streaming out soap bubbles and carrying a rock band that played anti-globalization songs.

The march began without violence, and most of the demonstrators remained peaceful. But some taunted members of the police detachment, and several hundred wore bandanas across their faces with sweat shirt hoods pulled down low to obscure their identities.

The protesters from around Europe and the rest of the world gathered at two locations early in the day for rallies, then marched in two groups along three-mile routes to converge on the harbor for the main demonstration - the biggest so far against the June 6-8 summit in the northern resort town of Heiligendamm.

"The world shaped by the dominance of the G-8 is a world of war, hunger, social divisions, environmental destruction and barriers against migrants and refugees," organizers said in leaflets handed out on the streets.

Most stores along the route had nailed up there windows ahead of the protests - with the exception of sausage stands and other fast food restaurants.

Dozens of different groups, including communists, anarchists and environmentalists, were taking part and messages were mixed: Some urged action from the G-8 countries in the fight against HIV/AIDS, African poverty and climate change, while others questioned the legitimacy of the existence of the G-8 itself. Among the organizers were the anti-globalization group Attac, radical leftists, Christian groups, the Green Party and others.

The protest comes ahead of the three-day summit that opens Wednesday in the nearby northern resort town of Heiligendamm, where German Chancellor Angela Merkel hosts the leaders of the other G-8 nations - Britain, France, Japan, Italy, Russia, Canada, and the United States.

Kay Stenzel woke at 3 a.m. to drive in from the eastern city of Bautzen with four friends to voice their discontent with the G-8 leaders.

"They want to impose their wills upon the poor nations," he said, waving a red flag emblazoned with a black cat - an animal he chose because it was "unruly."

A week before the start of the G-8 Summit in Germany, President Bush was trying to head off critics of his policy on global warming by announcing he's ready to work with the rest of the world, reports CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod.

Bush, under international pressure to take tough action against global warming, on Thursday called for a summit of the United States and other nations that spew the most greenhouse gases on the planet.

(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)