There have large anti-war demonstrations in Cairo

President Thabo Mbeki, whose country South Africa has been a prominent opponent of attacks on Iraq, expressed regret saying the war "is a blow to multilateralism".

KENYAN VOICES Reaction in Nairobi to the war on Iraq In pictures

African Union Secretary General Amara Essy said the launch of the war had caused grief and deep regret among its members.

Public protests have already taken place in some cities across Africa, especially in countries where there are large Muslim communities.

However, Nigeria, which has an election looming and a big Muslim population, has banned public demonstrations.

Meanwhile, more than 400 African workers and their families have crossed into Jordan after fleeing Iraq out of fear for their safety. The International Organisation for Migration says most of those leaving are Sudanese nationals, but there are also some Somalis, Egyptians and Chadians.

Main developments across Africa

• In the Egyptian capital, Cairo, thousands of armed riot police were deployed on Friday during protests at the Al-Azhar Mosque. Crowds of protesters who gathered in the mosque's interior courtyard chanted slogans expressing their solidarity with Iraq.

• The United States has shut its embassies in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya.

• Kenya which suffered terror attacks in 1998 and 2002 is publicly critical of the attacks. Foreign Minister Kalonzo Musyoka said full scale war could have been avoided through dialogue.

• Nigeria says some of its citizens had been recruited to fight for Iraq against US-led forces and are preparing to leave.

• In Mauritania, a Muslim country, several hundred people including MPs, take to the streets of the capital in a march against the war.

• In Somalia, which has denied links to a terrorist network, people are glued to their television sets and businesses express concern that goods from the Gulf region could be interrupted by the war.

• Eritrea, one of two African countries to join Mr Bush's' "coalition of the willing", said in a statement that it did support the war but added that it was not directly involved in actual conflict.

• The other coalition partner, Ethiopia, said it has offered the United States the use of its airspace and also landing rights, as requested by the US in relation to the Iraq war.

• Former South African president Nelson Mandela, who has already strongly and publicly attacked US President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair for their stance against Iraq felt he had nothing to add, according to his spokesperson.

• Archbishop Desmond Tutu said on Friday that the attack on Iraq was an "immoral" war in which America was abusing its power.

• Mauritius described Thursday as "a tragic day for Iraq and for the rest of the world".

• Cameroon's President Paul Biya, seen to be a close ally of France, left on Thursday for a surprise trip to the US prompting the press to put Cameroon's president "in the war camp".

• Algeria and Morocco regretted that military force had supplanted diplomacy as the means to defuse the standoff.

• Tanzania said it was saddened by America and its allies for attacking Iraq.

• Madagascar's Foreign Minister General Marcel Ranjeva told national radio: "Our hope is that the war does not last because peace is more important than anything else."

• Burkina Faso's prime minister told parliament it "stands resolutely on the side of the peace camp and calls for an end to hostilities."

• Ghana, chair of the West African regional body Ecowas, has so far said nothing, although its president has cancelled a planned trip to Britain.