Security high for key Nato summit

Tens of thousands of protesters are expected at the summit venues

A massive French-German security operation is in place as US President Barack Obama and other leaders arrive for a key Nato summit in Strasbourg.

French police were still holding more than 100 of the 300 people arrested on Thursday when masked protesters smashed bus shelters and burnt rubbish bins.

Some 25,000 French police are set to patrol protests which could attract tens of thousands of demonstrators.

Several hundred German soldiers are at two sites where activists are expected.

The German town of Kehl and the resort of Baden-Baden are also hosting Nato events for the alliance's 60th-anniversary summit.

Mr Obama flew in from London, where he attended the G20 summit.

Before the Nato meeting, he will hold talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Strasbourg and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Baden-Baden.

US President Obama arrives in Strasbourg

He is expected to seek more support from America's Nato allies to fight the Taleban in Afghanistan.

France last month announced it would be fully re-integrated into Nato.

For decades it has stood at a distance from the alliance, taking part in military operations but not in its central planning and decision-making.

Protests have already begun, with police in Strasbourg firing tear gas and rubber bullets as they forced a crowd back on Thursday.

Groups of youths, many wearing hoods or scarves, walked through a suburb of the city carrying banners saying: "Stop repression in London and Strasbourg".

Bus stops and vehicles were vandalised, shop windows smashed and a barricade put up on one street.

One protester rammed a pole through the front window of a police vehicle.

A passenger in the car appeared to be holding a handgun as it quickly reversed.

In a separate incident, AFP reported that a German photographer had been taken to hospital after being injured in the stomach by a rubber bullet.

An eyewitness who asked not to be named told the BBC that riot vans and water cannon had been seen heading towards the protesters' official camp in Ganzau, south of the city.

New leader

At the talks, the state leaders are expected to consider relations with Russia and possibly announce a new secretary general.

The current secretary general, Dutch diplomat Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, steps down at the end of July.

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen is the frontrunner, but Turkey has expressed opposition to his appointment, based on his stance over the Danish publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in 2006, and the broadcasting of a Kurdish TV station in Denmark.

Speaking in London hours before the summit began in Strasbourg, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said: "I look at [his candidacy] negatively."

Sphere: Related Content