Italian pacifists planning an antiwar march during President Bush’s farewell visit to Rome this week staged a protest outside a city centre prison that has been partially emptied to house arrested demonstrators in the event of disturbances.

The protesters, dressed in convict clothes, said a decision to move 230 inmates from the Regina Coeli prison on the Tiber embankment was “a grotesque attempt to intimidate us”.

Piero Bernocchi, their spokesman, said an “entirely peaceful” protest march would go ahead tomorrow afternoon to coincide with Mr Bush’s arrival.

Mr Bush will hold talks on Thursday with Silvio Berlusconi, the Prime Minister, and President Napolitano before an audience with Pope Benedict XVI on Friday. Mr Bush told Italian state television: “I know Mr Berlusconi and trust him.”

There were clashes between riot police and demonstrators when thousands of protesters staged an antiwar march during Mr Bush’s last visit to Rome a year ago. Police used teargas to disperse protesters on Piazza Venezia who threw bottles and stones and donned face masks in defiance of a police ban.

Mr Berlusconi, who returned to power with a commanding majority in elections in April, is a staunch ally of Mr Bush.

Tight security is being mounted ahead of the visit to protect not only the US Embassy on Via Veneto but also other American “symbols” such as the American Academy on the Janiculum Hill and Villa Taverna in the fashionable suburb of Parioli, the residence of the US Ambassador, where Mr Bush will be staying.

Rubbish bins are being removed along routes which Mr Bush’s convoy will follow, and a ban is being imposed on flights over the city. Il Messaggero, the Rome daily, warned its readers that mobile phone signals would be blocked in the city centre.

Franco Frattini, the Foreign Minister, recently told Nato that Italy will “loosen” restrictions on the rules of engagement for Italy’s 2,600 troops in western Afghanistan and Kabul.

He also said Italy would” upgrade” its military training for Iraq’s naval and air forces. Italy withdrew most of its forces from Iraq two years ago under Romano Prodi, the then centre-left Prime Minister, but left in place a team of fifty civilian and military advisers.

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