LONDON - SEVEN people were arrested on Monday as protesters scuffled with police outside the Israeli embassy in London in a second day of rowdy protests over Israel's deadly air strikes on the Gaza Strip.

Several hundred protesters were initially kept behind metal barriers across from the embassy in the up-scale central London district of Kensington, but surged forward across the road towards the front gates.

Police on horseback moved in to try to disperse the crowd and confused scuffles broke out among security forces and protesters, brandishing placards reading 'Free Palestine' and 'Stop starving the Palestinians'.

At one point an Israeli flag was burned in the crowd. Some waved placards reading 'Stop the Holocaust in Gaza' and 'End the siege on Gaza'.

'There were around 600 demonstrators. Seven arrests were made for various public order offences, including assaulting the police,' a Scotland Yard spokesman said, adding that the protest broke up in the early evening.

While the crowd dispersed, two people were pinned to the ground by police officers, one of the demonstrators being handcuffed.

A spokeswoman for the Stop the War Coalition (STWC) said the organisation intended to rally every day at 2pm outside the Israeli embassy.

Friday's planned rally will take place outside the Egyptian embassy, and a 'national emergency demonstration' in central London is scheduled for Saturday at 2pm in protest at Israel's 'atrocities'.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown 'needs to be reminded that (his predecessor) Tony Blair's support for Israel's attack on Lebanon in 2006 led to him being forced from office', STWC said in a statement.

'The British government must call for the bombing to stop now and for an end to Israel's illegal blockade of Gaza over the past year, which has inflicted near starvation and lack of essential resources on its people.' Britain has called for a ceasefire.

The Scotland Yard spokesman said: 'We're aware of further protests possibly taking place. We are trying to liaise with the organisers. We do invite any organisers of any protests to work with us because we are here to facilitate lawful demonstration'.

A 90-minute demonstration in Birmingham, Britain's second city, attracted around 200 people, according to West Midlands Police.

Members of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign also gathered in the Welsh capital Cardiff and Sheffield and Halifax in northern England.

On Sunday outside the Israeli embassy in London, 10 people were arrested after Kensington area was brought to a halt by what organisers said were 3,000 protestors, although police put the figure at 700.

Israeli military jets pounded Gaza for a third day on Monday as tanks stood near the border in the 'all-out' war Israel has vowed would wipe out the Islamist Hamas movement.

The death toll in Gaza rose to at least 345 and Palestinian militants responded with deadly rocket fire that killed three Israelis. -- AFP