Anti-war protesters outside the White House this morning substituted fake bombs for Easter eggs and then held a "cluster bomb hunt" for children, to emphasize to young ones that only in the U.S. can they pick things up without getting blown up.

"Here in the U.S. they can pick things up, but not in other parts of the world," said Melissa Byrne, spokeswoman for Code Pink, a feminist anti-war group.

While First Lady Laura Bush presided over the White House's annual Easter Egg Hunt, Code Pinkers in Lafayette Square handed out baskets to young children and told them they could pick up the fake "cluster bombs" for candy prizes.

The purpose, said Miss Byrne, was to protest the manufacture of "cluster bombs" by U.S. companies such as Lockheed Martin, and to educate young children about what happens when these bombs kill civilians — including young children — in foreign countries.

Civilians are most often injured or killed when they pick up unexploded cluster bombs.

"They say they are going after enemy combatants," Miss Byrne said, "but in reality it's the civilian population that gets hurt."

The Code Pink "cluster bomb hunt" drew a counter protest from about 10 people, who lined up with a large banner on Pennsylvania Avenue, in front of the White House, that said, “God Bless Our Troops, Defenders of Freedom, American Heroes."

"We're rooting for the home team in the war on terror," said Kristinn Taylor, a Washington D.C. leader for the online conservative activist group Free Republic.com.

Mr. Taylor said the Code Pink "cluster bomb hunt" was "psychologically abusive of children," and that Islamist terrorists target innocent women and children while the U.S. military goes out of its way to avoid killing civilians.

"Where is the protest against violent jihad?" said another sign in Mr. Taylor's group.

"The imminent danger in this world is not our munitions. It's what the terrorists are doing," Mr. Taylor said.

-- Jon Ward, White House correspondent, The Washington Times