Hezbollah organized a demonstration of about 5,000 girls, most in headscarves, outside the French embassy here to protest a proposed French ban on headscarves in state schools.
Most of the demonstrators were students brought in Thursday by bus. They marched from the Place du Musee to the embassy, where one veiled girl gave a letter to an embassy employee.
Men from the Lebanese Shiite movement acted as marshals for the march, as the girls girls carried French flags and banners demanding that French President Jacques Chirac block any ban.
Demonstrators dispersed without incident an hour later, as about 100 soldiers and police officers guarded the exterior of the embassy to maintain order.
Chirac on December 17 came out in favor of a ban on the Islamic headscarf and other "conspicuous" religious symbols in state schools along with Jewish skull-caps and large crosses.
He wants the rules written into law by the start of the next academic year in order to reaffirm the country's secular identity.
The decision, intended to reflect France's strict separation of religion and state, has set off a storm of protest by Muslim leaders around the world.