(DUBLIN) - The man dressed in a furry green frog suit outside Ireland's parliament building had a message for French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday: "Hop it Sarko. The people say 'no'."

"It's just a bit of fun," said "Kermit", brandishing his home-made banner in the sunshine. "We're taking the mickey out of the French. It's a way of showing that he can't tell us to have a second referendum."

As he hopped away, some of the thousand or so other protesters lined up behind barriers opposite the Dail had a similar message for the French president, as he arrived for talks with political leaders and campaigners.

Others, like the Irish Farmers' Association, welcomed the visit, as they massed behind their polished red and blue tractors decorated with the Irish and French tricolour flags and the blue and gold ensign of the EU.

Their beef was more with EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and what they said were his "concessions" on agricultural subsidies to developing nations and call for reduced EU food production at the World Trade Organisation talks.

"Stop Mandelson's WTO sell-out" their banners read, calling for Sarkozy, the current head of the six-month rotating EU presidency and an opponent of Mandelson's proposals, to "protect agriculture and European food production".

Further down the road, Irish fishermen, unhappy at what they say are "unfair" EU fishing quotas, handed out free fresh fish to passers-by on O'Connell Bridge.

A man who gave his name only as "Michael from Morbihan" (in the Brittany region of northwestern France), had a different message: Sarkozy, with his controversial economic reforms, was killing the French way of life.

"There's no liberty and equality in France any more," he said, his face painted red, white and blue, a green Irish leprechaun hat on his head and the black and white Breton flag draped around his shoulders.

Most protesters, though, were out in force to register their outrage at Sarkozy's suggestion that Ireland should vote again on the treaty, after rejecting it in a referendum last month, leaving the 27-member bloc in limbo.

Anti-war protesters, trades unions, Irish language groups and an assortment of mainly leftist organisations held aloft their placards in English and French, calling for him to respect their democratic will.

"We want Mr Sarkozy to respect the Irish vote and see that 'no' means 'no'. We don't want to be bullied into another referendum," Sinead Kennedy, from the Campaign Against the European Constitution (CEUAC), told AFP.

"The Irish people were the only people out of 490 million Europeans who got to vote on this treaty. We think that Sarkozy has difficulty hearing the word 'no'."

One placard held aloft in the crowd read simply: "Casse Toi Pauvre Con" -- or "Get lost, you stupid bastard" -- a phrase which became notorious in France when Sarkozy used it to brush off a protestor at an agricultural show in February.

At one point a shouting protestor was led away by police after throwing two eggs in the direction of Sarkozy. They fell short by about 50 metres (yards), according to the state broadcaster RTE.

At the heart of the protesters' complaints is that the Lisbon Treaty, designed to streamline EU institutions after recent eastwards expansion, is virtually identical to the EU constitution.

"The French and Dutch both said 'no' (to the constitution) in 2005. The Irish vote was the third rejection. As far as we're concerned this treaty is dead," Kennedy added.

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