Edinburgh, Scotland ? More than 200,000 anti-poverty campaigners formed a human chain around Scotland’s capital on Saturday, echoing the musical call of the Live 8 concerts that world’s wealthiest nations act to lift Africa out of misery.

The “Make Poverty History” march launched a week of demonstrations ahead of the Group of Eight summit to be held near Edinburgh next week, with protesters hoping to pressure President Bush and his G-8 colleagues to end the misery of millions in the developing world.

Organizers and police estimated that 225,000 people took part in the march.

“We are citizens of the global village. We need help,” said Siphiwe Hlophe, 45, who traveled from the African nation of Swaziland to participate in the march. “The G-8 leaders must live up to their promises. They must be accountable.”

Waving banners, blowing whistles and clutching balloons, protesters clad in white – the symbol of the anti-poverty campaign – streamed through the cobbled streets of the Old Town, over the Royal Mile and through the commercial district, encircling Edinburgh Castle with a giant human bracelet.

Organizers said more than 200,000 people took part in the march, a figure backed up by estimates by Edinburgh city council. Unofficial police estimates put the figure at 120,000.

Make Poverty History March makes its way past St Johns Church in Princes Street, Edinburgh, Scotland on Saturday. The marchers said the world must no longer tolerate the extreme poverty that blights the lives of millions in Africa and elsewhere. The marchers want to send a message to politicians gathering for the summit of the G-8 rich countries at the nearby Gleneagles resort this coming week.

The march’s peaceful but powerful message came as hundreds of thousands gathered in 10 cities worldwide for a series of Live 8 concerts also aimed at pressuring the world’s most powerful leaders to alleviate African poverty at the Group of Eight summit next week.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair says the poverty in Africa is a “scar on the conscience on the world” and is pushing for concerted international action when leaders from the United States, Russia, France, Germany, Canada, Russia and Japan join him for a three-day summit starting Wednesday in nearby Gleneagles.

Britain’s Treasury chief Gordon Brown said those taking part in the march and Live 8 concerts around the world were participating in a great moral crusade.

“You are standing up today for people who have no power of their own but need power, and we are on their side,” said Brown, in a passionate speech to several hundred activists from the charity Christian Aid in Edinburgh. “To tackle the greatest evil of our time, ours must now become the greatest moral crusade of our time.”