SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- Summoned by Puerto Rico's top religious
                  leaders, more than 80,000 people staged one of the biggest demonstrations
                  in years here Monday to protest the planned resumption of U.S. Navy
                  training on the island of Vieques.

                  Carrying banners bearing the portrait of Jesus and reading, "We Want
                  Peace," along with red, white and blue Puerto Rican flags, the protesters
                  staged a silent march watched by hundreds of police officers.

                  Called by top religious leaders, including the heads of Puerto Rico's Catholic
                  and Methodist churches, the "Peace for Vieques" march repudiated an
                  agreement between Gov. Pedro Rossello and President Clinton to resume
                  limited training on Vieques, the Navy's prize Atlantic fleet bombing range.
                  Police Chief Pedro Toledo estimated the crowd at 85,000.

                  "We are showing the consensus in Puerto Rico's heart in favor of peace and
                  justice," said San Juan Archbishop Roberto Gonzalez Nieves. "It is a signal
                  of hope and confidence."

                  Organizers depicted the protest as nonpolitical, though many members of
                  this U.S. territory's tiny Independence Party participated.

                  Clinton and Rossello agreed last month to allow the Navy to resume limited
                  training using inert bombs. The pact calls for a referendum, likely to be held
                  in 2001, that will allow Vieques residents two choose between allowing the
                  Navy to resume use of the range on its own terms -- including the use of live
                  bombs -- or requiring the Navy to cease all training by May 1, 2003.

                  Increasing involvement by church leaders in anti-Navy protests has angered
                  many pro-statehood politicians here. They fear the protests could harm
                  efforts to make Puerto Rico -- recipient of dlrs 11 billion in federal funds
                  annually -- the 51st U.S. state.

                  "It is anti-American, anti-Navy and does not contribute to the serious work
                  that Gov. Rossello has done to obtain the Navy's exit," said House speaker
                  Edison Misla Aldarondo.

                  Many marchers Monday bristled at the politicians' criticism.

                  "I'm here because it's important to keep the peace in Vieques, and there
                  doesn't have to be any other reason," insisted 52-year-old Marta Figueroa,
                  of the southern town of Juncos.

                  "Even though we're veterans and have done our service, I want to tell the
                  president of the United States that we want peace for Vieques," said
                  Modesto Santiago Alvarado, 72, a U.S. Army veteran of Korea and
                  Vietnam.

                  For 60 years, the Navy has used Vieques, with the island's 9,400 residents
                  sandwiched between an ammunition storage zone and the bombing range.

                  After an errant bomb killed a civilian security guard last April, protesters
                  moved in. Military exercises were suspended, and Puerto Rico demanded
                  the range be shut down.

                  Adm. Kevin Green said Friday that the USS George Washington battle
                  carrier group would not carry out training on Vieques in March, as
                  scheduled, but would move the exercises to the Gulf of Mexico and Florida.
                  Until last April, carrier groups routinely carried out live-firing training in
                  Vieques that the Navy argues is essential to maintaining battle readiness.