Anti-US protest

MANILA -- Amid protests and threats of extremist attacks, tightened security was evident even before Bush touched down in Villamor Air Base: two F-15 fighter jets escorted Air Force One through Philippine airspace until before the presidential plane landed.

President Arroyo deployed over 11,000 police and soldiers to Manila amid warnings from Abu Sayyaf that it would mark Bush's visit with violence.

Several kilometers away, riot police blocked protesters as they tried to march to the Batasan complex in Quezon City.

The protesters chanted anti-US slogans and burned American flags and effigies of both Bush and President Arroyo, branding them "terrorists".

There were no reports of any violence, however, as thousands of policemen backed by troops barricaded the highway leading to the building. Bush's motorcade later used the same avenue.

Security concerns ran high during Bush's visit, and he was late almost an hour in getting to the Congress because "large crowds of people" blocked his route, said White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan.

"There were large crowds of people on the motorcade route, and the (US) Secret Service wanted to make sure it was secure. So they worked with Philippine authorities to make sure the area was secure," she said.

Earlier Saturday, more than a dozen student protesters who tried to enter Rizal Park where Bush was laying a wreath at a monument to national hero Dr. Jose Rizal were forcibly dispersed.

Police beat them back with truncheons. There were no arrests made. Bush and his wife Laura flew in from Japan around noon for the first state visit by a US leader in this former American colony since Dwight Eisenhower in 1960.

"Rock of stability"

Security officials, however, insisted there were no specific threats against Bush.

After laying the wreath, the US president held talks with Arroyo in Malacañang and promised her government more military and economic assistance.

Bush called the Philippine-US military alliance a "rock of stability" in the Pacific, promising funds and training for Filipino troops to defeat Jemaah Islamiya (JI) and the Abu Sayyaf, a small group of Islamic militants blamed for the kidnapping deaths of two Americans and for bombings in the south.