Protesters set fire to dustbins during a protest on a street in Berlin early Friday. Demonstrators were fighting with police forces during the traditional protests before May Day. (Gero Breloer/Associated Press)

Police and hundreds of protesters clashed in Germany and Turkey ahead of May Day demonstrations on Friday, as discontent over the global recession is expected to swell the number of protesters in planned labour rallies around the world.

About 3,000 police officers were deployed on the streets of Berlin on Friday after battling about 200 youths who set trash cans on fire and threw bottles at police while shouting anti-capitalist slogans.

German news agency Deutsche Welle reported 48 riot police were hurt and 49 people were arrested. But authorities said the clashes were more subdued than in previous May Day demonstrations in the city in recent years.

In Turkey, riot police used water cannons and tear gas in the country's largest city, Istanbul, to prevent hundreds of demonstrators from gathering in the city's central square.

Some of the protesters were attempting to pass through police barricades set up to enforce a ban on May Day demonstrations and responded by throwing stones and damaging cars. Several people were detained, private CNN-Turk television reported.

The Turkish government declared May Day a public holiday last week, bowing to pressure from the country's trade unions and leftist political parties.

May Day has not been a public holiday in Turkey since a 1980 military coup, whose leaders regarded the festivities as a rallying point for leftist activism.

France braces for massive protests

Thousands of protesters marched through the Greek capital Athens on Friday, as strikes disrupted public transport, ferry services and flights by the national air carrier Olympic Airlines. The airline cancelled more than 100 flights Friday, including at least six international services, and ferry services to Aegean Sea islands were also halted.

In Russia, tens of thousands of government supporters and opponents demonstrated across the country amid growing unemployment and the country's worst economic crisis in a decade.

The largest rallies were organized by Putin's dominant United Russia party and government-linked trade unions. Demonstrators expressed concern about the economy, but either praised the government or avoided explicit criticism.

Several thousand Communist Party supporters gathered near a statue of Karl Marx on a central Moscow square, singing verses praising Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and calling for the government's resignation. They accused the current leadership of ignoring the needs of everyday Russians and mismanaging the economy.

Meanwhile in France, some 300 rallies are planned for Friday amid growing fury with Nicholas Sarkozy's government over unemployment and bailout packages given to the country's banks.

The country's eight main unions have called for nationwide protests, the third such action in the past year.

Demonstrations were also held Friday in Asian nations, including South Korea and Indonesia.

With files from The Associated Press