NEW DELHI, Sept 4: Police will be pulling out all stops to guard Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon when he visits India next week, officials said on Thursday, as political groups warned of protests against the Israeli leader.

Reeling from a wave of attacks over the last ten days, police said they would accord Mr Sharon the same protection as had been extended to then US president Bill Clinton when he visited India in March 2000.

“There will be an unprecedented level of security for the Israeli prime minister’s visit. We are taking no chances,” Joint Police Commissioner Maxwell Pereira, who is tasked with guarding Mr Sharon, said.

The political groups said they would try to block Mr Sharon from paying homage at New Delhi’s Rajghat mausoleum to Mahatma Gandhi.

The Communist Party of India (CPI), which has traditionally supported the Palestinian cause, warned it would lead the protests at Rajghat and in Agra, where Mr Sharon is set to visit the Taj Mahal.

“Rajghat is a monument of peace and non-violence and Taj Mahal is a monument of love,” the CPI said.

“We do not want Mr Sharon, who has killed Palestinians fighting for a homeland and who had butchered innocent children, women and men in refugee camps at Sabra and Shatila to set foot on the temples of non-violence and love,” CPI secretary Atul Kumar Anjan said.

The centrist Janata Dal said it would hold street protests outside the New Delhi hotel where Sharon and his delegation are due to stay.

“Thousands of protesters will take out a black-flag procession on Sept 9,” Dal spokesman Kunawar Danish Ali said, referring to a traditional Indian form of protest.

Mr Sharon is due to arrive in New Delhi on Sunday and make a private tour of the Taj Mahal on Monday before kicking off the three-day official leg of the visit the following day.

“We want to convey to the world that there is a large section of people in India who still stand with the Palestinians,” Mr Ali said.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Lenin) also warned of street protests.

“We feel the United States and Israel are the biggest terrorist nations. We want to tell the world that our policy of support for the Palestinian cause can never be reversed,” spokesman Ranjit Abhigyan said.

India for decades had been a close ally of the Palestinians, treating Israel as a pariah state until Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s government began cosying up to Tel Aviv after coming to power in 1998.

An upscale Delhi hotel, now under a security blanket, has block-booked 140 rooms for Ariel Sharon’s entourage.

“We have requested the hotel not to rent out any rooms until the visit is over and its management has agreed,” another senior police official said.

Mr Pereira said traffic would not be allowed on streets leading to the hotel and venues where Mr Sharon would be holding talks with his Indian counterpart.

“We will also take care of the rallies,” he said as Israeli security agencies joined the drill.

Sources said Tel Aviv would send in advance a C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft that will ferry hi-technology equipment to be used in beefing up security for the Israeli premier, one of the world’s most protected leaders.

Israeli security experts have also scanned the hotel where Sharon will stay and visited sites where the prime minister is scheduled to travel for talks or sightseeing.

The United News of India quoted intelligence officials as saying that groups such as Hamas or Al Qaeda could urge groups like Lashkar-i-Taiba or Jaish-i-Mohammad to disrupt the trip with attacks. —AFP