Hundreds of others also marched in support of women's rights, labor unions and education in spirited but largely peaceful protests a day after violent clashes with police.

Police, including some in riot gear, met the animal rights activists about eight blocks from the Staples Center, where the convention is being held. They also kept the public and the media out of a two-block area around a California Federal bank while they made arrests.

About 200 people gathered on the periphery, clapping, banging drums and shouting at the police to re-open the streets. Minutes later, police ordered that crowd to disperse.

"We were peaceful demonstrators. It was a lawful assembly. This is an unlawful arrest," Geoff Kerns said as he and others were handcuffed in the shade of a skyscraper. "At the beginning of the march I told everyone that there would be no property damage, public or private."

At Edward Borovay Furs, where the protesters banged on windows before being arrested, workers were out spray painting over the business's name on a green awning within 90 minutes, and preparing to take down a larger sign.

In other protests, demonstrators carrying dove puppets made of shredded white cloth marched from the abandoned $170 million Belmont Learning Center to the nearby office of California Gov. Gray Davis. Some chanted, "Schools not jails!"

Belmont, built in one of the city's poorer neighborhoods near downtown, has become a symbol of failure for the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation's second-largest school system. The district stopped work on the school after learning it was being built on contaminated land.

Elsewhere, a separate demonstration in support of unions and women's rights moved from Pershing Square -- a center of protest activity at the convention -- to the Roybal Federal Building, where two lines of U.S. marshals and police in riot helmets blocked their way across the entrance.

"LAPD, go away! Racist, sexist, anti-gay!" a crowd of hundreds chanted.

Despite the standoffs and arrests, Tuesday's protests were without violence.

A day earlier outside the Staples Center, hundreds of demonstrators threw rocks and fired steel balls from slingshots at police, who answered by firing rubber bullets and beanbags from shotguns, swinging batons from horseback and unleashing pepper spray.

The clash Monday night after a free concert by the anti-authoritarian band Rage Against the Machine came as President Clinton addressed the convention.

Six people were arrested and at least four were slightly injured as police chased the crowd, as large as 8,000 at one point, from a fenced protest.

Delegates inside the arena were generally unaware of the trouble outside, and debris left from the clash -- rocks, smashed plastic water bottles and sticks -- was removed quickly.

The Los Angeles Police Department, which had kept a high profile on downtown streets throughout the day, defended its actions and promised an equally strong response to any further trouble.

"It went by the book," said Cmdr. David Kalish, a police spokesman.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson accused the police of "unnecessary brutality" and the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California called the police response an overreaction.