DUBLIN, April 5 (ISlamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Anti-war protesters from all over Ireland are expected to gather at Hillsborough Monday, April 7, to bring their message of peace directly to U.S. President George W. Bush.

A number of buses will travel to Belfast from Dublin and other parts of the Republic as President Bush visits the province to meet with Prime Minister Tony Blair, The Belfast Telegraph reported Saturday, April 5.

A spokesman for the Stop the War Coalition said slammed the meeting as it "pauses for a council of war."

"Bush is here to meet Blair where they think there is the least amount of opposition."

The Schools Against the War group is also urging people to take to show their opposition to the offensive against Iraq, now raging for the 17 days^.

"The hypocrisy of Blair is unbelievable. How can they come here with a straight face and talk about peace when they are waging an illegal and unjust war against Iraq?" a spokesman for the group wondered.

"School students will take to the streets wherever George Bush goes in Ireland, Britain or Europe," he added.

The Green Parties in Northern Ireland and the Republic issued a joint condemnation of Bush's visit to the province.

Northern Ireland Green Party leader John Barry said this visit is not just "hypocritical but insulting. While waging an unjust and illegal war in Iraq, President Bush is coming here to talk about peace."

The fitful Northern Ireland peace process will also come up at the snap summit that will, importantly, be taking place taking place just before Thursday's fifth anniversary of the Good Friday peace accords.

Blair and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, his partner in getting bickering Protestant and Catholic politicians to work together, have set Thursday as their deadline for restoring devolution in the province.

By traveling to Belfast at this point in time, Bush will be in a prime position to get the peace process back on track, and thus pay back a huge favor to Blair, his staunchest ally in the war against Iraq, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

"Who would have believed, in their wildest dreams, that President George W. Bush would find time to visit Northern Ireland in the middle of the war in Iraq?" the Belfast Telegraph newspaper said Saturday.

"It must rank as one of the most symbolic events in recent Irish history, demanding a positive response from all our politicians," it said in an editorial.

For Bush, it will be his first experience with the Northern Ireland conflict, in contrast to his predecessor Bill Clinton, who took a keen personal interest in making the Good Friday accords a success.

For Blair, the summit will be a long-awaited opportunity to refocus on a major domestic problem that he had been hard-pressed to give full attention to, given the drawn-out run-up to the Iraq invasion.

Informed sources in Belfast said the idea of a summit in Northern Ireland, for 30 years the scene of post-war Europe's longest-running sectarian conflict, cropped up after Bush and Blair last met on March 26 at the president's country retreat in Camp David, Maryland.

Their attention will swing to Northern Ireland later Tuesday, April 8, when they will be joined first by Ahern, then later by the province's three main political leaders, Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams, Ulster Unionist chief David Trimble, and Mark Durkan of the Social Democratic and Labor Party (SDLP).

Though the peace process has been snagged since October, sources said Bush and Blair want to hold up Northern Ireland as an example for reconciliation in the Middle East.

"Northern Ireland is perceived to be a tableau of reasonable success at conflict resolution" that could serve as a template in the Israel-Palestinian conflict, one analyst said.

Northern Ireland's power-sharing executive was suspended on October 14 amid a nasty row over allegations of Irish Republican Army (IRA) activity, including alleged spying within the Northern Ireland Office.

Since then, Trimble, the province's chief minister, has been insisting an iron-clad commitment from the IRA, which is observing a ceasefire, that it will renounce armed conflict and give up its guns and explosives.