Denmark Forecast Is Chilly for Bush

President Bush arrived in Copenhagen late Tuesday to thank the Danish government for its continued participation in the Iraq war and reconstruction effort despite considerable opposition among the public here.

Denmark has more than 500 troops in Iraq, most of them involved in training Iraqi security forces based in the southern part of the country. Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, like British Prime Minister Tony Blair, has resisted public pressure to withdraw military forces from Iraq.

“He’s got a good, strong backbone,” Bush said of Rasmussen in comments to reporters before the trip.

Recent surveys have shown a majority of Danes view Bush unfavorably, and authorities expected as many as 20,000 people to participate in a march through downtown Copenhagen today.

Shortly before Bush’s arrival, his visit was mocked by a group of about 200 activists, many of them wearing oversize sunglasses and black hooded sweatshirts in apparent defiance of a Danish law forbidding protesters to cover their faces.

The demonstrators marched for more than two hours through a steady rain, stopping in front of the U.S. Embassy to burn an American flag and denounce Denmark’s role in Iraq.

“George Bush, we know you, your daddy was a killer too,” they chanted in English.

Upon his arrival, Bush was transported by helicopter to Fredensborg Palace, the summer home of Queen Margrethe II. A fife-and-drum unit of Denmark’s Royal Life Guard played as the president, First Lady Laura Bush and daughter Jenna made their way to the 972-room palace.

Bush was to meet with Rasmussen today and attend a lunch as a guest of the queen before heading to Scotland for a summit with Blair and other leaders from the Group of 8 industrial nations.

National security advisor Stephen J. Hadley said the president hoped to persuade G-8 leaders to address the issue of climate change by linking it to energy development, poverty alleviation and other “interrelated” issues. He was speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on the way to Denmark.

Hadley indicated that Bush was unlikely to make major concessions to those who want the United States to commit to limits on carbon dioxide and other pollutants believed to contribute to global warming. The U.S. is the only G-8 member that refused to sign the Kyoto accord limiting greenhouse gas emissions.

But Hadley suggested that the administration might accept a G-8 communique acknowledging that global warming was occurring and that human activity was at least partly responsible.

“Look, everybody knows that there’s a human component,” Hadley said.

“The question is, what are we going to do about these things ... and that’s what we’re trying to focus on.”

Times special correspondent Helen Hajjaj contributed to this report.