Thousands likely to protest as Bush arrives in Sweden

Thousands of protesters are expected in the Swedish port of Gothenburg today when President Bush arrives for a meeting with EU leaders. Swedish police have seized an improvised grenade launcher and explosives and arrested a woman with press accreditation for the summit.

Some demonstrators, who represent a variety of environmentalist, pacifist and anti-globalisation groups, have threatened to lay siege to the conference centre which will host an EU summit.

After a meeting with other NATO leaders in Brussels yesterday, Mr Bush claimed to have made progress in winning Washington's partners over to his idea of a new missile defence system. But most EU leaders remain opposed to the plan, which they believe to be in breach of arms control agreements with Russia, including the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty.

The German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, did not reject the US proposal outright but he insisted that Washington's European partners must have a say in whether the plan goes ahead: "We are partners and allies and we depend on each other." The French President, Mr Jacques Chirac, said the ABM treaty remained crucial to maintaining the delicate international balance and said he would oppose any breach of it.

Mr Bush responded sharply to criticism of the missile defence plan on the basis that there was no guarantee it would be effective. "Those critics are dead wrong. Of course, we're not going to deploy a system that doesn't work. What good will that do?" he said.

Mr Bush's defence plans are among a number of issues that divide the US and Europe and which are likely to feature prominently in today's talks.

Although Washington has shown signs in recent days of softening its position on an international agreement to tackle climate change, EU diplomats do not expect Mr Bush to drop his opposition to the Kyoto protocol which demands cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. One senior EU diplomat suggested that the US was moving towards an agreement on climate change that would contain elements of the Kyoto protocol but would demand smaller cuts in emissions from developed countries.

The EU position is complicated by the fact that Belgium and Italy are perceived as more sympathetic to the US stance on climate change than other member-states. And some EU countries are willing to make concessions on the environment in an effort to find agreement with the US on outstanding trade disputes.

Trade disputes include US demands that the EU should accept imports of genetically modified food, hormone-enhanced meat and noisy aircraft. This week's execution of the Oklahoma bomber, Timothy McVeigh, has highlighted cultural differences between the US and the EU, which demands that applicants for membership abolish capital punishment.

Today's summit is unlikely to produce concrete results but diplomats hope that it will help to improve the uncomfortable relationship between the world's only superpower and its biggest and most important partner.

Polish security services are prepared to protect President Bush from anything. In a training exercise security agents simulated an attack with rotten tomatoes. Several left-wing, green and anti-globalisation groups have formed an "anti-Bush committee" and plan to stage protests when he arrives in Warsaw tomorrow.