L'AQUILA (Italy) - AROUND 3,000 anti-globalisation protesters and local residents marched on Friday on the G-8 summit in the quake-hit Italian town of L'Aquila.

The march set off from Paganica, where one of dozens of tented camps have been set up to house victims of the devastating April 6 earthquake, watched by a large force of police.

The march was originally organised by local citizens' groups to draw attention to the slow progress of reconstruction three months after the quake, which killed 299 people and left some 70,000 homeless.

However, anti-globalisation groups comprised the vast majority of the marchers, AFP photographers said, after insisting in the run up to the summit on taking part in the peaceful protest.

'We have advised the demonstrators to behave themselves. The success of the protest will depend on the peacefulness or otherwise of the march,' said Mr Stefano Frezza, leader of a local citizens' movement.

Italy's Interior Minister Roberto Maroni warned on the eve of the protest that police would not tolerate any repeat of the violence that marred Italy's last G-8 summit, in 2001 in Genoa.

Dozens of demonstrators were arrested in a protest in Rome on the eve of the summit. -- AFP