Council member Gary Okino said that the change in the bill means that police can still cite people for camping illegally under the new measure, which is like giving them a traffic ticket.

Leaders from 60 member nations are expected to meet May 7-11 at the Hawai'i Convention Center. Although the bank was founded to foster economic and social development in the Asia-Pacific area, social activists and other critics say it approves loans that exploit the poor and harm the environment.

About two dozen people protested the conference outside Honolulu Hale after the measure won approval on the second of three required readings. Some protesters wore black, several chanted and marched around carrying banners that said: "ADB Creating Global Poverty." Their slogans included: "No more police state" and "being poor is not a crime" as well as "ADB really sucks, they just want to make big bucks."

Councilman Andy Mirikitani said the bill remains "overbroad" even after the changes.

"It still appears to target the homeless," he said while casting the only vote against the measure, which passed 8 to 1.

Opponents questioned other parts of the bill, including one that would allow police to use dogs and mounted officers to clear campers from parks. Police cannot do that under present law.

Stanlyn Placencia of Wai'anae Community Outreach was among the advocates urging that the council only consider measures that would apply to a specific place for a specific time, such as near the convention center during the conference.

Pat Camara, who is homeless and living on the beach, urged council members to think about people who have nowhere else to go. "You people have no reality of what it's like to live out on the beach."

Kathi Hasegawa, executive director of the Affordable Housing and Homeless Alliance, said the problem of homelessness is likely to grow worse as people begin to reach the federally mandated five-year limit on welfare benefits.

Assistant Police Chief Boisse Correa said the measure is specifically designed to deal with problems similar to those faced by Seattle during the World Trade Organization conference in 1999.

"We do not want to displace anyone," Correa said. The debate prompted he and council member John DeSoto to reveal that they each had had times in their lives when they were homeless.

"I am a Hawaiian, I am a resident, and at one point I was homeless on the Mainland," Correa said. DeSoto said he ended up living for several months in an abandoned Corvair in California in 1971 before turning his life around.

Dennis "Bumpy" Kanahele, of the Nation of Hawai'i, said he is concerned that those coming for the conference and those who want to protest respect the native Hawaiian culture.

"Watch what you do when you come over here," Kanahele said. "We're not taking either side as the host culture."

In response, Frank Giacomo, who said he has been to other Mainland protests, said the police are more likely to provoke problems than the protesters. "The protesters aren't here to trash the city."

In other news, the council also approved a proposed across-the-board increase in bus fares on the second of three readings needed to become law. Under the plan, single-ride cash fares would increase to $1.50 for adults, 75 cents for students. Monthly passes would rise from $25 to $27 for adults and to $13.50 for students.