Security for Bush will shut centre of London

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About 2,000 police - including hundreds of armed officers - will be deployed for the US president's brief visit. Parts of Whitehall between Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square will be shut to traffic for more than 24 hours as the huge land and air operation swings into force.

Hundreds of demonstrators from the Stop the War Coalition will converge on Parliament Square from 5pm on Sunday to protest against the president, who is visiting London as part of a farewell tour of Europe before he leaves the White House next January.

About 1,000 Met police officers will be deployed each day during the twoday visit. A Met spokeswoman said there would be a highly visible uniformed presence as well as a "large amount of covert work".

She said police had been in discussions with organisers of the Stop the War protest over their plans for Sunday. There will also be vehicle restrictions around the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square and police helicopters will be used as part of the operation.

Scotland Yard would not reveal the cost of the security operation, but it is believed to be over £1million. It rivals the £746,000 police operation around the Olympic Torch relay in April.

Today it emerged that hundreds of thousands of air passengers face delays because of the president's arrival at Heathrow. Disruption is likely to begin today as staff prepare for the arrival of Mr Bush and his entourage of seven aircraft on Sunday.

Yesterday, passengers were delayed for up to an hour after air space over Heathrow was cleared to allow a military cargo plane carrying armoured cars to land at nearby RAF Northolt.

Today four helicopters will land as part of a major rehearsal. Sources at the airport said the aircraft "flow rate" would be reduced from the usual 42 planes an hour to 24, causing an aircraft backlog of up to seven hours. On Sunday delays will be worse.