The movement began in November 1999, when 40,000 people wreaked havoc on the city of Seattle, on the US West Coast, to protest globalization, as the World Trade Organization met to kick off a new round of talks.

This year, WSF organizers took the forceful step of holding the 2005 meeting at the same time as its nemesis, the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The January 26-30 Davos meeting seeks to spread liberal, free-market economics that business favors; the WSF, something of an anti-globalization catch-all, does not.

The WSF embraces many whose leading concerns include fair trade, world peace, opposing genetically modified foods, agrarian reform and environmental protection.

The movement has close ties to environmental organizations such as Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Fund, Friends of the Earth and European Green parties, particularly in the fight against genetically modified foods and nuclear power and the battle for sustainable development.

The WSF took two years off from competing head to head with Davos, in 2003 and 2004, and met in Bombay, India last year.

However, the WSF will be held January 26-31 this year and comes back to its city of origin, Porto Alegre, returning to its roots in a mostly Latin American and European movement. The first three forums were held here.

The group's slogan is "Another World is Possible."

About 75,000 people have signed up for this year's WSF, and 80 percent are Brazilian, said Candido Grzybowski, one of the organizers, adding that he expects more than 100,000 people to attend.

The vast majority of participants will come from Brazil, the United States, France and Italy.

Asian activists are expected to come in force, unlike their counterparts from African, Arab and Eastern European nations.

The forum will focus on aid to developing nations, the cancellation of debt owed by poor countries and the fight against poverty -- all issues of importance highlighted by the tragic Asian tsunami.

Participants will call for the total forgiveness of foreign debt owed by the 11 countries hit by the December 26 earthquake and giant waves that left more than 280,000 presumed dead.

About 2,000 workshops on topics ranging from the environment to culture and finance will be offered, along with a dozen cultural events.

The WSF will launch a campaign Thursday to back the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals to cut poverty in half by 2015.

Though the forum has considered meeting every two years, for now it is sticking with its annual schedule and plans to organize three simultaneous gatherings next year -- in Venezuela, Morocco and South Korea, and hold its meeting in Africa in 2007, likely in Kenya.

Opposition to the war in Iraq and US President George W. Bush had been the focus of debate at previous forums.

This time, Iraq -- whose elections will take place at the same time as the forum on January 30 -- "will be one the important themes, but it won't dominate," WSF organizer Francisco Whitaker said. Argentine Adolfo Perez Esquivel, the 1980 Nobel Peace Prize winner, will speak about Iraq.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his culture minister, the popular singer Gilberto Gil, will join the forum. Lula is slated to participate in a workshop on combating poverty.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will also take part, and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero may attend, as well.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.