Protesters push past barricades at Martin Luther King's tomb

Beating drums and chanting "In 2004, Bush no more," about 300 people had marched in circles near the tomb, saying the president's stop there was merely a "photo op."

"When I heard Bush was coming here I couldn't believe it. I was outraged and disgusted, and I just think it's a photo op. It's so transparent," said Kathy Nicholas, a flight attendant from Atlanta who said she had planned to visit the tomb before she learned of the president's visit.

The protesters pushed toward the sidewalk across the street from King's tomb, abandoning a barricaded area that had been designated by the Secret Service several hundreds yards back. Some of the protesters held signs that displayed King's image and said "War is not the answer."

Bush's visit to observe King birthday has upset some civil rights leaders, who say his politics and poor scheduling conflict with their plans to honor King. Critics also say Bush's policies on the Iraq war, affirmative action and social service funding conflict with the King legacy.

Bush planned to lay wreath on King's grave before heading to a $2,000-a-head fund-raiser in downtown Atlanta.

King Center officials said they extended no formal invitation to Bush but accepted his offer to come.

"Out of respect for that office and out of respect for Dr. King, he's coming," said Lynn Cothren, special assistant to Coretta Scott King at The King Center.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan responded to the criticism Thursday, by saying the president's visit on King's birthday was a way to pay tribute to "Dr. King's legacy, his vision and his lifetime of service.

"This is a way to honor a lifetime dedicated to fighting for equal opportunity and equal justice for all people," he said.

Local leaders also criticized the short notice of the visit, which conflicted with other King holiday events.

The MLK March Committee, a group of area civil rights activists who knew King, has worked for months on a human rights forum at Ebenezer Baptist Church, across the street, which was planned to run all day.

Organizers said they initially were told to conclude their event early for security reasons, but the Secret Service later agreed to allow the event to proceed as scheduled.

Coretta Scott King declined to comment on Bush's visit, but King has been vocal about her opposition to the war in Iraq, promoting her late husband's principles of nonviolence.

"I do believe as much violence in the world as there is today, that more people have embraced a nonviolent lifestyle than we really know of. Those people are not in charge of making the policies of their nations," King said Tuesday. "If they were, I think we would have more peace and more justice."

Some local critics claimed Bush was using the stop as a way to get taxpayers to pay for his trip to the fund-raiser for his re-election campaign.

Larry Noble, executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, said it doesn't work that way. Noble said a president's campaign generally must foot the bill for out-of-town transportation if there is a fund-raiser involved, even if the trip includes official business.

In practice, the campaign wouldn't actually reimburse the entire cost of operating Air Force One, Noble said. Rather, it would pay the equivalent of a first class plane ticket for everyone on board, except for those aides who are attending for the official business but not the fund-raiser.