CORRECTED-Pro-Assad protesters try to gatecrash Syria meet in Tunis

(Corrects to Friday from Thursday)

TUNIS, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Several hundred supporters

of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Friday forced their way

into the grounds of a hotel in Tunisia where Western and Arab

leaders were preparing to meet to demand an end to Syria's

crackdown on opposition.

A Reuters reporter said the crowd arrived in buses at the

Palace Hotel, in a suburb of Tunis, and then forced their way

past perimeter gates. They were holding up portraits of Assad.

They tried to push their way into the hotel building itself but

were held back by a security cordon, the reporter said.

(Reporting by Tarek Amara; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing

by Louise Ireland)