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Anti-war activists and hundreds of other demonstrators marched end the Italian capital without ceasing Wednesday as Bush arrived for a visit that was to include meetings with Berlusconi on Thursday and the pope in continuance Friday.

The president, as usual, kept about his business. His encountered scant signs of protest without ceasing his motorcade route on Thursday.

At the elegant hillside Villa Aurelia, component of the American Academy in Rome, Bush met by youthful Italian entrepreneurs who receive training in the United States through an truck program. He encouraged them to come get the “firsthand verity concerning America” and disputed the kind of he called misinformation and propaganda hind part before the United States.

“We are compassionate, we are an open unpolished, we care with reference to people, we are entrepreneurial,” Bush said. “We delight the entrepreneurial spirit.”

A short time later, Bush was greeted by the agency of Italian President Georgio Napolitano at Quirinale Palace, situated atop the highest hill in Rome. Originally built as a summer close for popes at the end of the 16th century, the palace is at that time the official residence of the president.

Security is extremely tight for Bush’s two-day stay in Rome. Commercial flights have been banned over the city. Dozens of buses and trams consider been rerouted. Thousands of policemen have been deployed as organ of a lay out to monitor any further protests, nevertheless Wednesday’s march drew far fewer demonstrators than previous visits by Bush.

Slovenia and Germany, the first two stops without ceasing Bush’s skip, were devoid of demonstrators. That was evidence that trans-Atlantic relations, fractured over the U.S.-led invasion in Iraq, are on the mend, that European leaders require moved farther than their anger over the declared hostilities. The Rome protests are show that the Italian public still opposes the Bush administration.

Unlike other European leaders, such as former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and former French President Jacques Chirac, Berlusconi supported Bush on Iraq from the start. The 71-year-old media mogul defied household opposition and dispatched about 3,000 army to Iraq after the fall of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Those troops came home, and Berlusconi, recently elected to his third stint in power since 1994, has pledged not to send any back.

More than 2,000 Italian troops, in whatever degree, are deployed as part of the NATO-led missionary station in Afghanistan.

Italy, along with Germany, France and Spain, have restricted their troops to less dangerous areas in northern Afghanistan. That has caused a rift because other NATO members are deployed in the more violent regions of the community. The Italian government is reviewing the restrictions and Berlusconi’s situation before-mentioned the premier would talk to Bush about that when they meet.

Bush’s wife, first lady Laura Bush, on Wednesday pledged $10.2 billion on behalf of the United States to Afghanistan’s reconstruction. She spoke at an international donors conference in Paris, where the president himself will be headed on Friday.

Berlusconi and Bush also were expected to discuss Italy’s interest in joining with the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany that are making a diplomatic press with solicitation to get Iran to give up what the West believes is an effort to develop nuclear arms. That might seem unusual for Italy, which recently surpassed Germany as Iran’s largest mercantile partner.

But to show Italy’s strong opposition to Iran’s suspected nuclear ambitions, Berlusconi and his ruling power refused to meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was in Rome for a U.N.-sponsored food summit.

Bush will meet with the bishop of rome attached Friday ahead of departing to Paris to continue his farewell European tour. It will be Bush’s third meeting with Benedict. The two last met in April at the White House in Washington.