When in Rome, NATO Will Find Tight Security

Italian authorities are taking extraordinary security precautions for today’s NATO-Russia summit, with strong ground and air security forces mobilized and a 37-mile stretch of beaches closed--amid complaints from nudists who ask how they could possibly hide weapons.

The Italian government says it has no knowledge of a specific threat to the meeting, during which a landmark accord is to be signed between Russia and the 19-member North Atlantic Treaty Organization. But it has deployed 15,000 military, police and paramilitary personnel on the ground; helicopters and AWACS surveillance planes in the air; and navy and coast guard patrols just off the coastal summit site at Pratica di Mare Air Base. Fighter jets will be ready to take action if needed.

“Every type of threat, including electronic, chemical and biological, has been taken into account,” Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi told a news conference last week. “I imagine that Pratica di Mare will be the safest place in the world during this summit.”

The summit will bring together 20 of the world’s most powerful leaders, including President Bush, Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, French President Jacques Chirac and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

A NATO-Russian council to be created by the summit will give “Russia a new global status and commits the West ... to a partnership with Moscow of profound political meaning,” Berlusconi told reporters Monday. The council will be “a formidable new instrument to promote security and peace in the world.”

Bush arrived in Rome on Monday evening, joining Berlusconi for dinner at a 16th century villa designed by Renaissance artist Raphael. The president’s limousine was a bit too long to easily make a hairpin turn on the hillside road to the villa, forcing it to stop in front of waiting journalists. During the brief delay, Bush smiled broadly and waved enthusiastically to the cameras through the vehicle’s darkened windows.

When the president arrived, Berlusconi embraced him, then ushered him inside for talks in an exquisitely decorated drawing room. They dined in a hall with a view of Rome.

About half the top leaders attending the summit will fly into and out of Pratica di Mare today. Escape routes from the site, about 15 miles south of Rome, have been planned, in case of emergency.

The Italian government is requiring that airplanes flying into Rome’s main Fiumicino Airport during the summit, which lasts from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., have at least one unarmed security guard on board to protect against suicide hijackings.

Many domestic and foreign airlines were forced to cancel flights because they were could not meet the requirement. Rome’s second airport, Ciampino, was reserved for summit-related guests Monday and today.

Other security preparations include closure of a stretch of coast from Anzio to Ostia, Rome’s port, including a 200-yard stretch that has been officially designated a nudist beach. A local nudist organization said last week that it was appealing to Berlusconi, arguing that “a naked man or woman has nowhere to hide any arms.”

Security has also been tightened in Rome’s subway system, with a strong police presence in stations and on trains.

The air base, with many low green buildings and surrounded by barbed wire, is run-down. Temporary buildings have been constructed for summit activities, including a signing pavilion, a meeting hall and a media center.

Architect Mario Catalano told reporters visiting the site that he tried to evoke “Roman classicism” combined with warmer and more modern hues associated with Rome today.

The signing pavilion, for example, has arched “windows” reminiscent of the Colosseum that actually are sky-blue boards.

The hall for the summit luncheon is decorated with 20 ancient marble statues loaned by Naples’ Capodimonte museum. The Italian police force’s food and hygiene squad is in charge of ensuring the safety of the catered food.

The area around the base is said to be the site settled more than 3,000 years ago by the ancestors of Romulus and Remus, the mythological founders of Rome. That makes it an appropriate place for Russia and the West “to found a new civilization,” Berlusconi said last week.