GERMANY:The Group of Eight (G8) leaders convene in the Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm for a two-day summit today amid the largest security operation in recent German history.
Security fears hang over the summit, dubbed "eight against 80,000" by locals, after police clashed with stonethrowing protesters on Sunday night in the nearby city of Rostock.
Following the riot, which resulted in 1,000 casualties, conservative politicians have called for commandos to be deployed with rubber bullets.
Left-wing groups who question the G8's legitimacy have complained of an ever-tightening security noose strangling their demonstrations.
Chancellor Angela Merkel will steer leaders through a packed agenda addressing trade issues such as hedge fund controls and product piracy, as well as meetings with the so-called "O5" countries - Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa - all anxious to join the club.
New this year is a sponsorship programme with selected African states and, top of Dr Merkel's agenda, hopes of issuing a joint declaration on climate change with a promise to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Several groups have vowed to block the summit, which begins with a state banquet this evening.
In Rostock, an "anti-G8" summit got under way yesterday under the slogan "Rethinking Globalisation".
President George W Bush was the first G8 leader to arrive yesterday evening in Germany and perhaps the most unwelcome, judging by the 500 people who greeted him with wolf whistles and "Bush go Home" signs outside Rostock airport.
The countdown to the summit culminated in a final round of court battles between organisers and demonstrators yesterday.
Germany's highest court ruled that only 15 people may protest inside the summit complex this morning, while the legal fate of a 25km (15-mile) march to Heiligendamm was unclear last night.
Peaceful demonstrators vowed to dissolve their marches over the coming days if they are infiltrated by the so-called "Black Bloc", a hard core of up to 2,000 violent protesters from Russia, Bulgaria, Italy and Germany.
Jean Ziegler, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, told a packed Nikolai Church that G8 leaders urgently needed to tackle the "daily massacre of hunger" that kills 100,000 people a day.
"This happens on a planet overflowing with wealth," he said, reserving his harshest criticism for the "murderous dumping policies" resulting from EU agricultural subsidies.
"Hunger could be eliminated in the morning if these states only wanted it," he said to thunderous applause.
Organisers of the anti-summit, a feature of all G8 meetings since 1988, made efforts to distance themselves from the clashes between police and demonstrators at the weekend and again on Monday night.
"We are seeking a debate with words, not with stones," said Karsten Smid of Greenpeace.
He called on Dr Merkel to deliver clear reduction targets for greenhouse gases rather than "summit rhetoric". US officials have so far opposed any talk of fixed emission targets.
Philippines Nobel Prize winner Walden Bello accused Dr Merkel of following the same economy-first climate policies as Mr Bush.