Bush visit to Rome district scrapped over safety

ROME, June 8 (Reuters) US President George W Bush will skip a visit tomorrow to Rome's historic Trastevere neighbourhood for security reasons, a spokesman for the religious group he was to have visited there said today.

Bush will instead meet members of the Sant'Egidio Roman Catholic community, which has been nominated several times for the Nobel peace prize, elsewhere in the Italian capital, probably at the US embassy.

Asked if the change had been made because of security concerns, Sant'Egidio spokesman Mario Marazziti said: ''Yes, clearly.'' The Trastevere neighbourhood where the group has its headquarters is one of Rome's oldest quarters, made up of narrow cobbled alleys difficult for a presidential motorcade to negotiate.

The US embassy issued advice to its citizens warning them to avoid anti-Bush protests planned in other parts of the city.

''To avoid becoming targets of opportunity, Americans should avoid the demonstrations, bearing in mind that violence may erupt,'' it said on its Web site.

Italian security officials had been nervous about Bush visiting Trastevere although they decided it would go ahead.

Rome authorities had planned to effectively shut down the entire neighbourhood while Bush was there.

Marazziti said US security officials had visited the area yesterday. They informed the community today that Bush would not be able to meet them at their headquarters, but instead at the U.S.

embassy or the ambassador's residence.

White House spokesman Tony Fratto said the change in the venue of the meeting was decided ''for logistical reasons''. He said it would take place at the U.S. embassy instead.

The cancellation of the Trastevere visit quickly became a political issue, with the centre-right opposition accusing Prime Minister Romano Prodi's centre-left government of not being able to guarantee adequate security for an ally.

''The Prodi government is making a terrible impression,'' said Isabella Bertolini, a parliamentarian of the Forza Italia party founded by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Another Forza Italia parliamentarian, Osvaldo Napoli, demanded that the interior minister, who is in charge of police, explain why they could not promise adequate security. ''Bush does not trust our forces of law and order and security. This is a huge slap in the face for the Prodi government but above all an irreparable damage to Italy's image,'' Napoli said.

Sant'Egidio works with the needy in Italy and Africa, where it has many AIDS programmes. It brokered an end to Mozambique's civil war in 1992 and has 50,000 members in 70 countries.

Bush was to have stopped at the world headquarters of the group at about 1600 hrs tomorrow after meeting Pope Benedict at the Vatican, which is close by.

REUTERS SLD KP1819