Hundreds of people marched Sunday through Charlotte's central business district ahead of the Democratic National Convention to protest corporate greed in a demonstration that was lively but smaller than organisers had touted. About 600 marchers carried signs and banners, banged drums and chanted on a sunny afternoon as part of the March on Wall Street South.

Official convention events began Tuesday, but thousands of delegates, officials, protesters and journalists began gathering over the weekend.

Democrats assembled Tuesday to re-nominate Barack Obama for the presidency, to sell him as the wise and humane alternative to Republican challenger Mitt Romney, a pitch that will be repeated endlessly over the next two months to an American electorate that is more politically divided than at any time in at least a quarter century.

Through the course of the Democratic National Convention this week, Obama and his party will be fighting Romney's argument that the president has failed and will only lead the country deeper into debt and economic despair. – Photos by Agencies