TWENTY-THOUSAND POLICEMEN

More than 40 heads of states and their spouses are to attend this summit, and the number exceeded that at all previous G8 practice. With this in mind, the Japanese police said their work is much tougher than that of eight years ago, when the summit was held in Japan's southernmost Okinawa Island.

Over 1,200 policemen have been designated for the protection of VIPs, doubling the number at Okinawa in 2000, the police said.

According to the summit budget of the Hokkaido Prefectural government, more than a half of the 2.2 billion yen (about 20.1 million U.S. dollars) was earmarked for security.

Besides the 5,500 Hokkaido policemen, half of the local police force, 15,000 policemen from around Japan have gathered around the Toyako lake.

From New Chitose Airport to Windsor Hotel Toya and from Toyako town to Sapporo city, an atmosphere of the highest alert and security has permeated everywhere of the possible stops of the foreign leaders.

As the police are on guard all over, visitors could be hardly seen in the popular Toyako hot spring resort.

Escort motorcades of state guests have carried out several times of practice in Sapporo city and along the highway connecting the city, the airport and the Toyako region, causing a lot of traffic jams.

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