Germany vows tough measures against G8 protesters

BERLIN, May 11 (Reuters) Germany's conservative interior minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, promised tough measures today to prevent attempts by protesters to disrupt a G8 summit on the Baltic coast next month.

Schaeuble told the daily Bild that people suspected of planning attacks on summit targets could be detained for two weeks to guarantee security for the Group of Eight leaders at their meeting in the resort of Heiligendamm.

''When the most important political leaders in the world meet there is a higher risk. We will do everything we can to ensure their security and take appropriate measures,'' Schaeuble told the Neue Presse newspaper in an interview published today.

Schaeuble has already promised to tighten border controls before the June 6-8 summit of leading industrial powers by re-imposing passport checks at airports to keep out known troublemakers, as Germany did for last year's soccer World Cup.

In the interview he noted that it was during the G8 summit two years ago in Gleneagles, Scotland, that the 7/7 suicide attacks on London's transport system were carried out.

''The risk of terror attacks in Germany is not abstract, it is now very concrete,'' Schaeuble said. Last year a plot to explode two suitcase bombs on German trains was uncovered.

Earlier this week police launched a series of raids on anti-globalisation campaigners across northern Germany which prompted demonstrations by left-wing protesters on the streets of Hamburg and Berlin.

Police impounded computers and documents during the raids, which were part of two separate probes into anti-globalisation militants suspected of plotting arson attacks and other actions designed to disrupt the summit.

German government officials, keen to avoid a repeat of the violence that marred the Genoa G8 meeting in 2002, defended the swoop as part of investigations of groups known for violent action in the past.

''This was not an attempt at intimidation,'' said Thomas de Maiziere, head of Chancellor Angela Merkel's office, today.

De Maiziere said the summit was a great chance for Germany and the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern to show its best side to the world, as Merkel hosts leaders from the United States, Russia, Britain, Italy, France, Canada and Japan.

Up to 16,000 German security personnel will be on duty for the three-day summit. Just over 1,000 troops will also be in place, a controversial move in Germany where there is strong resistance to the use of troops within the country.

Security officials are taking no risks. A 12-km long fence has been erected around the resort of Heiligendamm and two German minesweepers will patrol an offshore exclusion zone.

REUTERS AK KP2054