Violent protests meet Bush at G8 summit

The G8 summit begins in Germany today and security is tight around the Baltic resort town of Heiligendamm. G8 leaders will discuss foreign policy issues including Iran's nuclear programme, Middle East peace, Sudan and Kosovo.

	Violent protests meet Bush at G8 summit
	BREAKING NEWS Osama bin Laden prepares new video Russia signs billion-dollar deal with Indonesia Relations between Russia and USA get into Cold War spirit again
	Two-headed tortoise celebrates 10th birthday More...

The German hosts are also aiming to secure new G8 pledges on development aid and Aids funding for Africa.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of peaceful demonstrators are expected to rally in Rostock throughout this week against the policies of the G8 industrialised nations.

Protesters have filed an appeal against measures to bar them from getting close to the G8 venue, which is surrounded by a 12km steel and concrete fence topped with barbed wire. Yesterday, about 400 protesters with anti-G8 signs tried to block one of the road exits from Rostock airport shortly before George W. Bush, the US president, landed.

The meeting of leaders from Britain, Germany, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States ends on Friday, sabcnews.com reports.

President George W. Bush will be met by anti-globalization protesters today when he flies in to Germany's northern port city of Rostock for the June 6-8 Group of Eight summit in nearby Heiligendamm.

Protesters plan to gather at 5 p.m. local time at Weitendorf, outside Rostock-Laage airport, to decry Bush's military policy, organizers said in an e-mailed release today. Bush arrives less than 24 hours after police in Rostock arrested 66 rioting demonstrators.

“Our presence will show the U.S. president that he's not welcome here,'' protest organizer Hans-Peter Kartenberg said in the release.

The group said it plans to blockade the airport tomorrow as other leaders arrive. In Heiligendamm, which has been sealed off by a 12 kilometer-long (7.5 mile) barbed-wire fence, German Chancellor Angela Merkel will host world leaders including Bush, Russian President Vladimir Putin, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the new French leader, Nicolas Sarkozy.

Their point of arrival at Rostock airport is used to train Eurofighter jet pilots and so is linked to war policy, according to Kartenberg. “The wars of the G-8 states are being prepared at Rostock-Laage airport,” he said in the statement, Bloomberg reports.