Anti-war activists are planning to stage a demonstration against US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice when she visits the UK this week.
The Stop The War Coalition said the politician’s visit to Blackburn and Liverpool, as the guest of British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, had caused “outrage”.
Complaints have already been voiced in Liverpool about the scale of the civic reception.
Mark Holt, chairman of Merseyside Stop The War Coalition, said: “They want to make this some wonderful cultural event to show off the City of Culture.
“We say it would be better to say no to this visit in remembrance of the Iraqi culture which lies in rubble or in the fires still burning in the flames they lit in the Middle East.
“We say remember the greatest antiquities museum in the world that was looted whilst US soldiers looked on.
“Condoleezza Rice and Jack Straw should not be allowed to parade as connoisseurs of culture when they have destroyed so many lives and so much culture. They are not welcome here.”