They were stopped about 100 meters from the heavily guarded seaside center, allowed to speak for about an hour, and finally dispersed by riot police backed by three firetrucks after refusing to leave.

They carried banners and placards that read, ``No to ASEAN sell-out'' and ``Junk ASEAN''. A number of protesters, including several women, fell to the ground and were hurt after police warded them off with batons and shields. Taunting police with names like ``imperialist lapdogs'', protesters fought back using placards and grabbed at policemen, but were eventually repelled.No arrests were made, but Manila police director Chief Superintendent Edgardo Aglipay warned authorities would not allow future protests at the summit venue.

Aglipay, who personally led the dispersal and joined policemen shoving away protesters, told AFP he had a ``man-to-man'' talk with leaders of the group Tuesday night and that they promised him protests would be made elsewhere.

``They reneged on their promise and we have to preserve peace and tranquility, and that is a fair warning to them,'' Aglipay said of the protest break-up. The dispersal ``was not violent'', Aglipay said, stressing that only water cannons were used. ``We have to protect and secure the conference,'' he added, while appealing to militant groups to cooperate with authorities to help ``put the summit in Manila in the books for being peaceful and memorable''.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon, speaking at a press forum elsewhere in the capital, said he had been assured by the police and armed forces that ``the situation is under control''. He said that in every international meeting, groups with ``different grievances'' would seize the opportunity to grab the limelight.

The demonstrators denounced the 10-member ASEAN as a tool of ``US imperialism'' and opposed the economic liberalisation agenda of the grouping, whose leaders will also meet with counterparts from China, Japan and South Korea on Sunday. The security breach came one day after Philippine authorities said they had put in place all precautionary measures against possible saboteurs. The military said it would deploy more than 2,000 troops as part of heightened security for the summit.