A day ahead of the start of the Republican National Convention, protesters gathered 20 blocks south of the convention site. "The majority of this country wants the Bush administration out of office," filmmaker and Bush critic Michael Moore told the crowd.

Meanwhile, Bush suggested in an interview with Time magazine that he still would have gone into Iraq but with different tactics if he had known "that an enemy that should have surrendered or been done in escaped and lived to fight another day."

He called the swift military offensive that led to the fall of Baghdad in April 2003 "a catastrophic success" in light of the fact that fighting continues to this day despite the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's government.

Pre-convention polls showed the presidential race evenly split between Bush and Democrat John Kerry, although the challenger has lost ground since his convention in Boston a month ago. The four-day Republican convention opens Monday.

Up to 250,000 demonstrators were expected to march up Seventh Avenue past the Madison Square Garden convention site.

"Today we send our message," said Leslie Cagan, leader of United for Peace and Justice, the march's organizer. As marchers began their protest, one handmade sign read, "Iraq and Vietnam. So many deliberate lies. So many wasted lives."

A large banner said, "Save America. Defeat Bush." People poked their heads out of apartment windows to watch the marchers in the sweltering heat.

Moore, the director of "Fahrenheit 9-11," told fellow protesters that "the majority never voted for the Bush administration, and the majority are here to say, `It's time to have our country back in our hands.'"

New York police said more than 300 people had been arrested through Saturday night for disorderly conduct and convention-related incidents.

On the eve of the convention, politicians of both parties made the rounds of television talk shows.