Austrian police on high alert as Bush flies in

POLICE blew up suspicious-looking packages, took up positions on virtually every street corner and made sweeping passes with helicopters over downtown Vienna yesterday as Austria prepared for its first visit by a US president in 27 years.

George W Bush’s one-day stop in Austria, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, was expected to be overshadowed by widespread European opposition to the war in Iraq and mounting calls for the shutdown of the US detention centre for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where three prisoners committed suicide this month.

Amnesty International called on the EU leadership to confront Bush about the alleged existence of secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe, where suspected terrorists reportedly were interrogated and possibly tortured.

“EU states must clearly condemn the CIA’s practices and commit themselves to preventing future kidnappings and secret prisons in Europe,” said Heinz Patzelt, secretary general of Amnesty’s Austria chapter.

A draft summit declaration obtained by The Associated Press said EU and US officials — “consistent with our common values” — would redouble efforts to ensure that “measures taken to combat terrorism comply fully with our international obligations, including human rights law, refugee law and international humanitarian law” .

The draft text did not mention Guantanamo by name, but officials said it reflected rising European concerns about detainees being held without formal charges or due process.

Mr Bush was due to arrive last night as the first US president to visit the alpine republic since Jimmy Carter signed the SALT II nuclear arms pact in Vienna in 1979 with then-Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.

Mr Bush is expected to call on Europe to eliminate agricultural subsidies so talks on a global free-trade pact can go forward. He also was to press European governments to make good on pledges of help for Iraq’s reconstruction, and shore up a united front on the international effort to get Iran to give up nuclear ambitions.

After the brief summit, Mr Bush heads to Budapest, Hungary, to commemorate tomorrow — four months early — the 50th anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian revolution.

Austria’s opposition Green Party also pressed Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel to urge Mr Bush to close Guantanamo when the two leaders meet at the ornate imperial Hofburg Palace totiday.

Bracing for a flurry of threatened anti-Bush demonstrations, Austria’s Interior Ministry was deploying some 3,000 police officers, including about 1,000 to focus solely on tomorrow’s protests.