FOUR thousand policemen have been drafted into the centre of Munich as protesters from across Germany and Switzerland gathered for the arrival of Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary.

Demonstrators are threatening to set fire to his effigy in the snow-covered square outside the hotel where he is staying for an international security conference. He caused outrage after he told the House Armed Services Committee that the Germans, like Libya and Cuba, had indicated that they “did not want to help in any way” in the efforts to tackle Iraq.

The US State Department warned Americans yesterday to avoid visiting Munich over the next few days. But the Social Democratic mayor, Christian Ude, dismissed the warning as ridiculous. “No American citizen has to worry about his or her safety here. There will merely be criticism of the US Government,” he said.

Even so, the fact that Munich now counts as unsafe for Americans along with Iraq, Iran, Libya and Yemen has taken the Germans aback. Suddenly, they see themselves being edged towards pariah status.

Hence the public irritation about Mr Rumsfeld’s comments to the House Armed Services Committee.

Mr Rumsfeld, who is rapidly emerging as the hate figure of the European peace movement, will be the first to address the conference tomorrow morning. He will be followed by Joschka Fischer, the German Foreign Minister. Gerhard Schröder, the Chancellor, has refused to attend.

Shortly after being nominated as US Defence Secretary, Mr Rumsfeld used the annual security conference to plead for a national missile defence system. His argument, which referred to the system as a “moral imperative”, disturbed many Europeans, who interpreted it as meaning that Washington would not seek international consensus.

Last year the conference, held in the wake of the September 11 attacks, saw a broad consensus, including Russia and China, on the need to uproot terrorism. This time there is likely to be an all-out transatlantic row. By most accounts, it will be the toughest confrontation since the 1980s, when many Germans were resisting the stationing of US missiles on their soil.

Mr Rumsfeld has already set out his reservations about “old Europe”, led by France and Germany, and his enthusiasm for the “new” Europeans, including Britain, Spain and Poland. The Germans interpret this as an attempt by the US to splinter any endeavour to forge a common European foreign policy on Iraq. Herr Fischer and Peter Struck, the Defence Minister, ostentatiously snubbed by Mr Rumsfeld on two earlier occasions in the past six months, will be batting for their government. At least some of the 30 foreign and defence ministers attending the conference are expected to side with Germany.

Mr Rumsfeld can count on support from the many US senators accompanying him, including John McCain and Joseph Lieberman.

The German dismay about Mr Rumsfeld is partly influenced by the fact that he is the one senior member of the Bush Administration with German roots. In 1972 the Chicago-born politician was appointed Nato Ambassador to Brussels, and during his posting undertook some research into his European roots. He discovered that his great-grandfather emigrated to America from the north German village of Sudwehye.

Mr Rumsfeld visited his family and struck up friendly relations. This time, the family is not so sure. “He is just a defence minister for us now,” Margarete Rumsfeld, 85, a cousin, said. “He should make damn sure not to start a war.”

Gunter Beckstein, the Bavarian Interior Minister, said that police would be on the lookout for troublemakers at the demonstration. “We will not wait until someone breaks a window. We will move in fast and hard,” he said.

Frontier police have already started picking up potential protesters at the railway station and stopping cars on the approach to Munich. Many of the protesters see Munich as a pit-stop between the antiglobalisation protests in Davos and the planned anti-war rally in Berlin on February 15.

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