Sunday, January 1 2006 11:56 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: Revellers around the world rang in the New Year with the usual fireworks and fanfare, as the US and Iraqi presidents called for peace in 2006.

Security was tight for the festivities in major cities worldwide, with 25,000 police and paramilitary gendarmes on duty in France amid fears of a repeat of the urban violence seen in towns and cities nationwide last month.

However, despite the torching of some 250 cars nationwide, police reported no serious outbreaks of unrest, and tens of thousands of revellers welcomed the arrival of 2006 in Paris's most famous avenue, the Champs-Elysees.

Street parties and glittering displays marked the festivities from Sydney to London, with crowds packing the banks of the River Thames to see the 10-minute blaze of fireworks focused on the London Eye.

The city's landmark ferris wheel was lit up in the colours of the five Olympic rings to celebrate London being awarded the 2012 Games.

The New Year festivities also gave Londoners a chance to put the deadly July 7 terror attacks on the capital's transport network in the past.

"We will not let our resolve slip to tackle the dangers we face, both at home, as so tragically illustrated on July 7, and abroad," Prime Minister Tony Blair said in his New Year message. However, as the clock struck 12, a strike on the London Underground trains threatened to make the journey home grim for some once the fireworks fizzled out early this morning.

Thousands of people celebrated in sub-zero temperatures around Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, while many braved the cold and police controls to be at Moscow's Red Square.

US President George W. Bush announced his resolutions for the year ahead of the celebrations there: to work for peace and prosperity and, in the short term, to watch a bit of American college football. "The president's New Year resolutions: to work tirelessly for peace abroad and prosperity at home," said deputy White House spokesman Trent Duffy.

In Baghdad, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said he hoped a new government of national unity would help improve public services and defeat the insurgency in 2006.

"Problems of lack of security, electricity and water persist and I hope they will be areas of priority for the new government, which we hope will be one of national unity," Talabani said on Iraqi television.

In Israel, young people were determined to celebrate the New Year despite the disapproval of religious authorities who regard it as a Christian festival and a nationwide alert after a truce by Palestinian militant groups expired.

Israeli television and public radio reported 50 security alerts, about 10 of them concrete, about attacks being plotted by Palestinian armed groups to mark the holidays.

Two Palestinians were killed in the evening by Israeli fire in the northern Gaza Strip.

However, flamboyant celebrating was not on the agenda in Lebanon, still living in the shadow of the latest assassination of an anti-Syrian political figure, the newspaper director Gibran Tueni.

Earlier in Sydney, 1,700 police patrolled the streets and beaches to prevent a possible repeat of suburban race riots there earlier this month.