46 Protesters Arrested

Munich police said the two days of the conference had passed without significant problems.

"We're satisfied with the operation," said a police spokesman on Sunday.

The number of arrests was slightly lower than last year, police said.

Protesters put on a number of demonstrations in the Bavarian capital.

Around 300 people gathered on Friday on the city's central Marienplatz under the slogan "Against the NATO War Meeting, Against Torture, War, and Occupation, Against Racism and Nazi Propaganda." Around the same time, about 200 people on bicycles rode through Munich's inner city.

The largest protest was on Saturday, when thousands of mainly peaceful demonstrators marched through the center of town. Police said there were 3,000 participants, while organizers put the number at 7,000.

Roughly 400 of the protesters belonged to the so-called "Black Bloc," who were known to the police as being prone to violence, they said. People from this group were also involved in altercations with the police.

Minor injuries

One of the foci of criticism was against Germany's plan to send Tornado fighter jets to Afghanistan. Protesters held banners that read: "Feeding people is cheaper than killing people" and "the friends of war don't want peace."

The city had mobilized around 3,500 police to ensure security at the annual conference whose guests included German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian President Vladimir Putin and US Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Only two police officers suffered minor injuries -- from a protester who tossed a bottle at one of them and then bit the second one while being arrested -- and a few cars were damaged, a police spokesman said.

All but two of the people arrested had been released by Sunday afternoon, police said.