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Sunday, 19 October 2003  
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Philippines greets Bush with warm welcome, protests

MANILA, Saturday (Reuters) U.S. President George W. Bush swept into the Philippines on Saturday for an eight-hour visit to talk security and trade, celebrating a century of close ties against a backdrop of protests and potential terror attacks.

Bush, on a six-nation Asian tour built round a regional summit in Thailand, is expected to reiterate pledges of more military aid for Manila and investment in the south to help seal a peace deal with the nation's largest Muslim rebel group. Warm praise is assured for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's efforts in fighting homegrown and foreign Islamic militants in this overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country.

"They will discuss the cooperation between the two countries in fighting international terrorism, which is the main problem in our region and in the whole world," National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said in a radio interview.

In a speech to a joint session of the Philippine Congress, the first by a U.S. president since Dwight Eisenhower in 1960, Bush will ask: "What can we do to help?" The military wants Bush to make good on the 20 second-hand helicopters, a transport plane, a patrol boat and 30,000 rifles that were promised when Arroyo visited the White House in May. But a senior U.S. official indicated that the hardware was unlikely to be delivered for at least a year.

"We haven't found the funding yet," the official said.

In Tokyo on Friday, Bush hailed Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi as a "good friend" as the two leaders discussed the North Korea nuclear crisis, U.S. concerns about fair trade and exchange rates, and Japanese assistance to help stabilise Iraq.

As gunboats patrolled Manila Bay under a blazing midday sun, Bush visited the heavily protected U.S. embassy briefly before attending a wreath-laying ceremony at a monument to Jose Rizal, an independence hero executed by the Spanish in 1896.

Later Bush and Arroyo shook hands as they met at the Malacanang presidential palace. He gave her a peck on the cheek. During his scheduled 40-minute private chat with Arroyo and his address to Congress later in the day, his wife Laura was due to read stories to 350 children.

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