United States President George W. Bush arrived in the Slovak capital of Bratislava on Wednesday evening amid tight security for his first visit to the Eastern European country after he kicked off his second term in office.

Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic, together with Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda and other senior government officials, held a special ceremony at the Stefanik international airport to welcome Bush and his wife Laura Bush shortly after Bush's Air Force One touched down at about 18:45 GMT.

Bratislava would be the last stop of Bush's four-day European tour which has already brought him to Belgium and Germany.

Bush, who came to Europe with the aim of mending fences with those countries that opposed the US-led war against Iraq, is due to hold talks with Gasparovic and Dzurinda on Thursday morning.

After delivering a speech to Slovak citizens in Bratislava's town square, Bush would wrap up on Thursday his trip to Europe, the first overseas destination of his second term, by meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Bratislava.

The Slovak police and the country's intelligence service have been busy with special security measures for Bush's visit and the upcoming summit between the US president and his Russian counterpart.

According to Slovak police, about 5,500 Slovak police officers would be on duty when the two heads of states are in Slovakia. About 400 firefighters and 400 soldiers have also been assigned to help the security forces.

Three sections of the downtown area would be sealed off to the Slovak public when the Bush-Putin summit takes place, the police said.

Some protests during Bush's visit have been announced, but Slovak officials did not expect them to attract major crowds.

(Xinhua News Agency February 24, 2005)