BBC Correspondent Dionne Shury: "One of the traditions of the British countryside"

Their cause has received a double boost with a national poll that shows two-thirds of the British public are in favour of a hunting ban and fresh calls from a Labour MP for the sport to be outlawed.

More than 300,000 people are expected to take part in or watch events on Boxing Day - traditionally the most popular day for fox hunting - as hunt saboteurs prepare to disrupt meets in Surrey, Essex, Yorkshire, Oxfordshire and Kent.

The pro-hunting lobby, the Countryside Alliance, said that more than 300 events are planned for Boxing Day, including fox and stag hunts and beagling.

Police are prepared for trouble

One of the most active anti-hunt groups, the League Against Cruel Sports, has indicated that it will stage demonstrations at the Old Surrey and Burstow meet in Lingfield, Surrey, at the Essex Farmers and Union Foxhounds meet in Maldon, Essex and the Bicester with Whaddon Chase Hunt in Oxfordshire.

It is part of the organisations' Deadline 2000 campaign to secure a government pledge for a timetable to achieving a ban before the millennium.

Chief Inspector David Bowden of Surrey Police said they would be ready to deal with any confrontations.

He said: "We try to liaise with both the hunt supporters and the protesters to ensure that everything passes of peacefully, but of course we are aware that there is more of a potential for trouble on this particular day."

Jim Murphy: Christmas "tainted" by fox hunting

Meanwhile, a Mori poll commissioned by the International Fund for Animal Welfare has found that 66% of the public in the UK favour a ban on hunting with the figure up to 74% among Labour supporters.

The poll also found that 41% would trust the government's promises less if ban legislation was not introduced in this parliament.

UK Director of IFAW Mike Baker said: "This poll demonstrates the deep-seated, consistent support that a ban on hunting enjoys among the UK public.

"Nothing the hunting fraternity has done over the last year... has had any marked effect on public opinion.

"As we approach a new year, momentum and morale in the anti-hunting campaign is high, and we will now redouble our efforts to secure a government commitment by the year 2000 to end this cruel and barbaric practice."

'Cruel and outdated'

Labour MP for Eastwood Jim Murphy has renewed his call for a ban on hunting saying that Christmas is "tainted by the continued torture" of foxes.

And the Labour MP for Basildon and East Thurrock, Angela Smith, is to attend the League Against Cruel Sports protest in Essex.

"What better way can we illustrate a modern, compassionate Britain in the new millennium than by banning the cruel and outdated practice of hunting with hounds?" she said.

There will be a special consultation of Labour MPs by a backbench committee in the House of Commons in the New Year, although many believe a ban will be impossible to push through until hereditary peers in the House of Lords lose their voting rights.

Campaigners from Protect Our Wild Animals will stage a Boxing Day protest outside Chequers, Prime Minister Tony Blair's official country residence in Buckinghamshire.