Over 300 anti-war protestors were arrested outside the White House on Monday, including the "anti-war mom" Cindy Sheehan from California.

Sheehan, whose soldier son was killed in Iraq last year and who has become an icon of the anti-Iraq war movement recently, was detained by police when she was taking a rest on a sidewalk near the White House with other anti-war activists.

News reports here said around more than 500 demonstrators had gathered on the sidewalk near the main entrance to the White House. Some walked away after police warnings of arrests and about 370 others were detained.

Sheehan was the first to be arrested.

"The world is watching," said the protesters.

Sheehan and other demonstrators would be charged with demonstrating in a restricted zone without permission, and would be released after being fingerprinted and photographed, police said.

Earlier in the day, 41 others were arrested by police for blocking entrances to the Pentagon, the Defense Department's headquarters.

The protest on Monday was part of a three-day anti-war campaign in Washington, which attracted over 100,000 people from around the country on Saturday calling for withdrawal of American troops from Iraq and an end to the war.

President George W. Bush "recognizes that there are differences of opinion on Iraq and our role in the broader Middle East," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said at a news briefing on Monday.

"Some people want us to withdraw from Iraq and withdraw from the Middle East, and they are well-intentioned. But the president strongly believes that withdrawing from Iraq and the Middle East would make us less safe and make the world more dangerous," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency September 27, 2005)