US President George W. Bush formally began his state visit to Britain on Wednesday morning as Queen Elizabeth staged a ceremonial welcome at Buckingham Palace.

Bush, who came to London on Tuesday evening for a three-day state visit, was later to receive calls by the leaders of the two opposition parties before addressing an invited audience at Banqueting House on the transatlantic alliance and his forward strategy for democracy.

In addition to his speech on Wednesday, Bush is to meet with British families who lost loved ones in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001.

Bush and his wife Laura are also to enjoy a state banquet given by the Queen on Wednesday evening at Buckingham Palace, where they will stay until Friday morning.

Yet, despite  the courteous royal reception, Thursday is not expected to be easy for Bush, whose handling of Iraq was strongly disapproved by most British voters.

An estimated 10,000 people are expected to attend an anti-war march through London on Thursday, when Bush and his closest ally British Prime Minister Tony Blair are due to meet at Downing Street for talks on winning peace in Iraq.

Local reports feared Bush would face the humiliating prospect of an effigy of himself being dragged to the ground by anti-war protesters at Trafalgar Square in central London.

The Metropolitan Police said they are planning a 5-million-pound (about US$8.4 million) operation to cope with the upcoming mass demonstration and possible terror attacks against Bush.

Bush has paid a heavy political price for going to war with Iraq without the approval of the United Nations and then failing to find Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction, a major justification for the US-led military campaign in Iraq.

Domestic popularity of Bush has fallen and his name is reviled by anti-war protesters around the world.

Just one week before Bush's visit to London, a British opinion poll found that 60 percent of Britons disapproved of the way Bush has dealt with Iraq and 49 percent of Britons thought it was the wrong thing to launch military action in Iraq.

There was also growing speculation in Britain that Bush would only use "the historic trip" to Britain to bolster his 2004 re-election campaign.

(Xinhua News Agency November 19, 2003)