Sri Lanka on alert ahead of ex-US presidents’ visit

Sri Lanka boosted security ahead of a visit by former US presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton to inspect American-funded tsunami relief projects, police said.











Sri Lanka boosted security ahead of a visit by former US presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton to inspect American-funded tsunami relief projects, police said. Bush and Clinton will arrive in Colombo Sunday and hold talks with President Chandrika Kumaratunga before leaving Monday for Matara, 160 kilometres (100 miles) south of here to inspect the rebuilding of homes and visit trauma counselling projects funded by the US Agency for International Development.

"More than 1,000 security personnel are being deployed in the region as we consider Bush the world's number two target after his son president George W.

Bush," a police spokesman from Matara told AFP on Saturday.

The focus of the heightened security is on Matara as it the only place where the two former presidents have public engagements. They are expected to spend about three hours meeting residents and local officials, police said.

A police official in Matara said the main route through the district would be closed to the pub