Miami -- A controversial city of Miami law that granted extra powers to police before November's Free Trade Area of the Americas meeting has been repealed.

City commissioners voted Thursday to take the law off the books on the grounds that the restrictions could affect the ability of city residents from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti and elsewhere to protest conditions in their home countries. The law prohibited protesters from carrying props including water pistols, balloons, bottles and sticks and requires a permit for public gatherings of seven or more people if they last more than 30 minutes.

Commissioner Tomas Regalado, who proposed the ordinance, said it was time to get rid of the law now that the FTAA meetings are over.

"We don't want the police saying it's on the books and we have to enforce it," Regalado said in a recent interview. "We don't want other groups to say, `You're not enforcing it with the Haitians and Cubans but you enforced with the FTAA protesters.'"

When the law was approved in November, city and police officials denied accusations from protesters that the law was solely created for the FTAA. But Regalado recently admitted that he proposed it to deal with the "unique circumstances" of the trade meeting -- and to prevent the kind of violence seen in other cities.

Miami officials feared a repeat of protests that disrupted the World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle in 1999, when demonstrators caused at least $3 million in damage and police made 525 arrests. A few months later in Washington, D.C., police arrested 1,300 people protesting meetings at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund buildings.

"Had it not been for the FTAA, I would have never done that," he said. "But we were bombarded by scenes of Seattle and Washington and wanted to protect the lives of the residents."

For the free trade meetings, organizers in Miami expected as many as 100,000 demonstrators, 10 times the number that actually turned up during the talks. Police arrested 234 but charged no one under the new law, and only one person was convicted.

Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, is glad the city is finally repealing the law.

"We never thought that it was necessary in the first place," he said. "But I have to say that repealing the ordinance certainly adds credence to the allegations that were made at the time they were considering adopting it -- allegations that were hotly denied by the Police Department -- that it was only being put into effect for the FTAA."

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