President Bush is in Sweden for a summit with European Union leaders that is likely to be marked by tension over his rejection of a global warming treaty.
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President Bush after yesterday's meetings with NATO.
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Amid massive security measures thousands of protesters were gathering to demonstrate their hostility to Mr Bushfor his refusal to accept the Kyoto Treaty on climate change.
While Mr Bush and Swedish Prime Minister Mr Goran Persson sped to a manor house outside Gothenburg, one of the biggest police operations in Swedish history was under way to keep protesters away from the summit site in the city centre.
Fearing a repeat of violence that has greeted international gatherings since a 1999 Seattle World Trade Organisation conference, police sealed off a large area around the summit centre with a double wire fence and erected barricades of freight containers across approach roads.
Police were expecting between 10,000 and 25,000 protesters from anti-EU, anti-US and anti-globalisation groups. Some activists have threatened to storm the conference centre.
In a sign Mr Bush can expect some forthright opinions during his 24-hour stay Mr Persson said on the eve of his arrival a strong Europe was needed to balance US world domination.
Mr Bush will hold lunch talks with Mr Persson, European Commission President Mr Romano Prodi and EU foreign policy officials before giving a news conference and having dinner with all 15 EU leaders.