Chirac greeted Hu with a warm handshake at the landing dock in Evian

EVIAN, France, June 1 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - As heads of state and government from around the world began arriving on Sunday, June 1, to take part in the Group of Eight (G8) summit in the French lakeside resort of Evian, anti-G8 protestors heat up.

Chinese President Hu Jintao and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi were the first leaders to arrive in Evian - Hu by boat and Koizumi by helicopter, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

French President Jacques Chirac, host of the G8 summit, greeted Hu with a warm handshake at the landing dock in Evian, located on the shores of Lake Geneva.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair touched down in Geneva shortly afterwards.

U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin were due to arrive shortly after midday (1000 GMT) following their morning summit in Russia's second city Saint Petersburg.

The G8 summit, which will run through Tuesday, June 3, is expected to focus on the flagging global economy and the fight against international terrorism, against a backdrop of lingering transatlantic tensions over the war in Iraq.

The gathering will formally begin at about 1:30 pm (1130 GMT) with a working lunch for the participating heads of state and government, as well as U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and the leaders of the World Bank, World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund.

On Sunday, leaders from nearly a dozen emerging nations including Brazil, China, India and South Africa are to take part in an "enlarged dialogue" on economic growth and international cooperation.

Africa will take centre stage later Sunday, when G8 leaders meet with Annan and the presidents of Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa for talks on the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).

"G8 Illegitimate"

Meanwhile, anti-globalisation protesters blocked the road between Annemasse and Thonon in eastern France early Sunday in protest against the G8 summit about to start nearby.

The protesters, mainly young with some wearing masks, walked onto the road to the sound of pounding drums and watched closely by police.

There was no immediate signs of trouble following the dawn protest action.

The marchers held up banners reading "No to War," "Peace," and "G8 illegitimate".

French union and rights observers said the group aimed to march towards Thonon, which is 10 kilometres (six miles) west of the heavily fortified summit venue in the spa town of Evian.

Major protests were expected later Sunday on either side of the nearby Franco-Swiss border.

Rioters Rampage

Anti-globalisation rioters rampaged through Geneva overnight, smashing shop windows and hurling firebombs at government buildings as demonstrators geared up for major protests to mark the opening Sunday of a G8 summit.

Tens of thousands of anti-globalisation activists are expected to join cross-border protests to air a multitude of grievances against the world's invitation-only rich club.

Some 25,000 police and military personnel have been deployed in Evian and just across the Swiss border in Geneva to try to ensure the high-profile summit passes off peacefully.

Security is so strict in Evian itself that the protestors have been forced to focus their campaign around Geneva and the French town of Annemasse, setting up vast tent camps.

In Geneva, two Molotov cocktails were hurled at local government offices while protesters threw stones and other missiles at windows and attempted to torch several of the shops.

A police spokesman said fire-fighters had been attacked as they tried to fight the flames.

Switzerland, which is not a G8 country, is putting on its biggest security operation since World War II amid fears of a repeat of the violence that shook the Genoa G8 meeting two years ago when a demonstrator was shot killed by police.

Many shops and businesses in Geneva's chic downtown quarter have boarded up windows. Some are closed to avoid possible anti-capitalist rampages.

Activists have vowed to block bridges to try to prevent official delegations arriving at the city's airport from passing into France to attend the summit.

Others have published advice on the Internet on how to evade the security, including swimming in spread-out lines across Lake Geneva.

Club of Powerful People

Meanwhile, an anti-G8 summit in Annemasse, which had been running debates and rallies in recent days, closed Saturday with a concert devoted to the cancellation of Third World debt.

"We contest the idea that the world can be run by a club of powerful people, without legitimacy," said Gus Massiah, president of the French third world campaign group CRID.

"They have been democratically elected to govern their countries, but they have not received a mandate to govern the world."

About 50 "fires of protest" lit up the skies after dark Saturday, and bonfires were lit around the Swiss and French shores of the lake.

Earlier Saturday, about 200 demonstrators tried in vain to approach a hotel in Geneva where heads of state from developing countries were quartered.

"Shame on you!" they cried, pointing toward Evian as Swiss President Pascal Couchepin welcomed the leaders of developing nations invited for an "enlarged dialogue" at the summit.

"Summit Of The Poor"  

Protesting in their own way, the  poor in Mali opened their own summit on Saturday.

Music and a parade of traditional hunters opened the alternative "summit", held in the village of Siby, near the Malian capital Bamako, participants said.

"The G8 summit cannot decide our future. It's us who must talk about what we need," said delegate Barry Aminata Toure.

Barry, president of the Mali branch of the Jubilee 2000 debt cancellation campaign, criticised NEPAD, saying that the Siby summit would propose "an ideal type of finance for African development".

The continent's debt will be at the centre of the talks, said fellow participant Abubakar Issa, a member of a Nigerian umbrella group for development aid.

"We will never be able to free ourselves from the debts we are paying. It's a noose around our neck, It's intolerable," he said.

According to participants, 70 percent of the world's poorest people live in Africa.

Some 400 delegate -farmers, students and social activists - from west Africa, Europe and Haiti are meeting in Mali, organisers told AFP.

The first such "summit was held last year during a G8 meeting in Canada.