Protesters heckle Powell at summit

Hundreds of protesters jeered, hissed and slow-handclapped US Secretary of State Colin Powell as he attempted to deliver a speech to the Johannesburg Earth Summit today.

The chaotic scenes forced the former US general to stop speaking in what seemed an orchestrated campaign to embarrass America over its foreign and environmental policies.

Looking shocked at the scale of the protest, Mr Powell gazed around the hall while the chairman, South African foreign minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, yelled at the hecklers to stop.

Eventually Mr Powell appealed to the crowd himself: "I have heard you. Now I ask you to hear me." Although he carried on, the remainder of his fiveminute speech was punctuated by almost continual heckling from the rear of the hall where aid and environmental group delegates were gathered.

The US has been under fire from green lobbyists since President Bush's decision to reject the Kyoto Protocol last year. But officials were clearly worried that the protests also reflected hostility in the run-up to a possible war with Iraq.