The following report comes from the BBC. (My comments are in brackets.)

Thousands of protesters, many wearing protective body padding, have started arriving in the Italian city of Genoa ahead of the G8 summit due to begin on Friday.

Protesters from anarchist organisations were pouring out of special trains at the city's Brignoli railway station in the early hours of Thursday morning and being directed onto buses by stewards with megaphones. About100,000 protesters, are expected to gather in the city, for what some activists have described as the most ambitious event in two years of disrupting summits.

Meanwhile foreign ministers from the countries taking part are holding a second day of talks in Rome to decide the summit agenda.

Fearing the kind of violence that marred last month's European Union meeting in Gothenburg, the authorities have turned Genoa into a virtual ghost town.

Some 20,000 police and paramilitary forces, equipped with automatic rifles, helmets and riot shields will be on hand to guard the talks. The palace where the summit will take place is protected by a four-metre-high (13-foot) steel fence to keep protesters at bay. Shops, bars, businesses and restaurants will remain closed behind steel shutters until next Monday.

But many activists have been arriving early to beat the "ring of steel" imposed by Genoa's police.

Nine hundred students from Bologna have already arrived at Genoa's train station and a railway official said that at least another 500 activists from Milan were due before the station shut down.

"The G8 is not good, because they come to decide for all people, for six billion people, and they are only eight. I prefer a G-100," said David Baldi, a 24-year-old student.

Many arriving said they would avoid confrontation with the security forces, but the crowd included members of the radical "Tutti Bianchi" ( White Overalls) who have threatened to breach the high-security "red zone" around the summit venue.

Protesters planning to use violence have been condemned by UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George Bush.

"Small groups of anarchists and hooligans have been using legitimate protest as a vehicle for causing chaos and mayhem," said a spokesman for Mr Blair.

President Bush said anyone who demonstrates against the G8 was no friend of the poor. (Yeah. Right. Rixon)

But European Commission President Romano Prodi has questioned whether such summits should even go ahead. He said the summits had grown "extravagant and excessive" and that it was time to "return to an organisation which puts the priority on people." (Like he really cares. He's only saying this because it sounds good.)

Poverty, disease and poor nations' debt will feature high on the agenda of the two-day summit. (Once again this sounds good, as if the G8 leaders really cared about poverty, disease and debt. They don't. They use poverty, disease and debt for their own ends: as a means to enrich themselves and increase their power.)

Pictured below: the G8 summit is being held behind what is effectively a "ring of steel."