Feature: Security Stepped Up for U.N. Summit in Mexico

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, March 18, 2002

Feature: Security Stepped Up for U.N. Summit in Mexico

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Mexican authorities have beefed up public security in the northern city of Monterrey, where the United Nations International Conference on Financing for Development will be held from Monday through Friday.

Acting on presidential orders, police forces intensified security around the third largest city of Mexico and in its hotels where participants from more than 160 nations will be staying.

Police agents patrol with dogs around the headquarters of the municipal government, where the U.N. conference will take place.

Public squares, parks and commercial areas are also being constantly guarded, particularly places near the hotel areas of the industrial city.

X-ray equipment and metal-detection devises are used to check the luggage of guests in most of the luxury hotels at Monterrey, capital of Nuevo Leon state about 750 kilometers north of Mexico City and 233 kilometers south of the U.S.-Mexico border.

As part of the measures to forestall any terrorist attack, hotel employees will be put under strict controls, and access to luxury hotels for foreign guests is also subject to restrictions.

The transportation of guests will begin one hour in advance to make sure they reach the venue of the summit on time, local security undersecretary Raul Maldonado said.

More than 50 heads of state and government, some 300 finance, trade and other ministers, officials of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization, as well as representatives of the civil society and business sector, will gather at the U.N. conference.

The participants will seek consensus on how to finance the development of the world's poorest countries.

The forum will allow non-governmental organizations from all over the world to join in discussions and debates, Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda said. Their views will be included in the final declaration of the conference.

The international event has also attracted some protesters and anti-globalization demonstrators.

They have picketed the headquarters of the municipal government with a 279-meter-long strip of black cloth to protest against the construction of a wall by local authorities to separate the conference venue from nearby slums.

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