Protesters scale NATO roof in anti-nuclear demo

BRUSSELS, June 8: Anti-nuclear protesters blocked access to NATO headquarters today with truck bearing a replica missile, and three scaled a roof inside its compound in a security breach before a meeting of alliance chiefs.

Ecology pressure group Greenpeace said 24 of its activists were arrested as Belgian police rushed to break up the protest, which was over before US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other NATO defence ministers arrived for the talks in Brussels.

The truck, carrying a replica of a US bomb, was removed and its driver taken away with the steering wheel of the vehicle chained to his body.

''It was an unannounced demonstration. It was a very dangerous thing to do and could have had regrettable consequences given that we are on an enhanced state of alert,'' said a NATO official.

He said security guards had used tear gas to disperse the demonstration, which ended calmly after around 30 minutes.

Greenpeace said it was protesting against the what it said were the 480 US nuclear weapons still based in six countries in Europe.

Official figures on the number of US missiles in Europe were not immediately available.

NATO was due to hold a meeting of a nuclear policy committee known as its Nuclear Planning Group during the talks in Brussels.

Alliance diplomats said ahead of the meeting they did not expect the group to take any make major any decisions.

REUTERS