Protesters yesterday said a decision to set up an exclusion zone around the Gleneagles hotel during this summer's G8 summit was "a recipe for disaster".

The protesters had applied for permission to march past the hotel when the leaders of the world's seven wealthiest nations and Russia begin their meeting on July 8.

But they have been told by police that the march, which organisers say will attract up to 40,000 people, must be held in a park in Auchterarder, a few miles away.

Police chiefs are planning to set up roadblocks around the Perthshire hotel, but G8 Alternatives, which is organising the protests, said it still planned to march.

Aamer Anwar, a human rights lawyer involved with the protest, said he would seek a judicial review of the decision to stop the march.

He said: "It is a recipe for disaster because they want us to have a static demonstration with no right of access to the hotel."