Tens of thousands of angry protestors took to the streets in major centres across India yesterday to demand that visiting US President George W. Bush go home, witnesses said.

Most of the demonstrations and protest marches passed off peacefully but in Indian Kashmir nine people were injured when police waded with batons into protestors on the outskirts of the summer capital Srinagar, police said.

The baton charge came after some of around 4,000 protesters, mostly Shiite Muslims, hurled stones and bricks at police and security vehicles, a police officer said.

Demonstrators were trying to reach a small United Nations office to present a memorandum denouncing Bush's visit to India.

In the Indian capital, some 15,000 communist supporters and unionists aligned with India's ruling Congress shouted "Killer Bush, go back!" as the US leader was signing an historic nuclear deal with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a few kilometres away.

Over a thousand policemen including paramilitary troopers and armed commandos, kept a watchful eye as protestors marched from the city centre towards parliament. They blocked them from reaching the building.