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.