Ring of steel for swearing-in ceremony

WASHINGTON - It will be an inauguration wrapped in steel.

About 8km of 1.8m-high, chain-link fencing weighted with concrete blocks has encircled the Lincoln Memorial and large portions of the National Mall ahead of George W. Bush's swearing-in on Saturday.

It is the most extensive use of such a barrier for an inauguration and the most visible sign of intense security.

Police have said security will be the tightest in decades because they are expecting the largest turnout of inauguration protesters since President Richard Nixon's inauguration in 1973, when tens of thousands of people marched against the Vietnam War.

National Park Service spokesman Earle Kittleman said the use of the fencing was not directly related to Saturday because security had been tightened generally over the past four years.

For the first time, people attending the inauguration parade along Pennsylvania Ave, where the White House is located, will also have to pass through security checkpoints.

Protest organisers have said they are exploring legal challenges to the restrictions.

"The whole security plan for this is outrageous and unnecessary and is militarising what has historically been a very open event," said Adam Eidinger, a protest organiser with the Justice Action Movement, a coalition of activist groups.

Hundreds of groups campaigning on causes ranging from the environment to the death penalty, plan to protest together this year. They will be joined by others angered by the contested election, and the combined turnout is expected to be over 10,000.

Some protest organisers claim that the checkpoints are aimed at limiting their access and preventing them from bringing signs and banners.

Police have said they are concerned because the demonstrators are likely to include many of those who took part in the violent 1999 protests in Seattle that shut down a global trade meeting. Others were among the 1300 people arrested in Washington last April for three days of World Bank protests.

Bush has meanwhile promised a quick review and a possible rollback of some of the most ambitious initiatives of President Bill Clinton's last days in office.

In an interview at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, he said that chief among the steps he would review were regulations putting nearly 24.3 million ha of the nation's forests off-limits to development.

"I understand the Western mentality and I want the Western mentality represented in this Administration," he said.

Lawyers were looking at every opportunity to reverse actions taken by Clinton in the waning weeks of his presidency, Bush was quoted as saying.

The former Texas Governor also said he was considering a new, tougher approach towards Russia that would limit aid for its conversion to a market economy. Such a move would end an eight-year effort by Clinton to use US direct financial aid to Russia to coax the country towards reform.

Bush suggested he would try to stop the money, except for that used to dismantle nuclear weapons, until Russian President Vladimir Putin cleaned up corruption and enacted economic and legal reforms.

In what would be another sharp reversal of Clinton Administration policy, Bush signalled he was inclined to use an Executive order to stop the flow of American money to any international organisations that provided abortions in foreign countries.

- REUTERS

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