Italy seals airspace as Russia joins Nato in anti-terror front

Italy put 15,000 police and soldiers on alert yesterday, sealed off miles of coastline and closed Rome's airport to most traffic to prepare for a summit at which Nato and Russia will pledge a new alliance based on fighting terrorism.

Today's gathering, at a military air base outside Rome, will promise a new era of cooperation between the former Cold War enemies.

Although it will last little more than five hours, the meeting of the Russian and US presidents, Vladimir Putin and George Bush, and the leaders of the other 18 Nato countries has posed an enormous security challenge for the Italian government.

With fears of an al-Qa'ida attack running high, heli-copters and Awacs aerial surveillance planes circled overhead. Italian navy and coastguard vessels patrolled the shore and a battery of anti-aircraft missiles was on alert.

Italian officials have estimated the total cost of the summit at €12m (£7.5m) and – on the instructions of Silvio Berlusconi, the Prime Minister – a hall at the base is being transformed into a kitsch stage set for today's ceremony, complete with amphitheatre and marble statues.

The meeting will be largely symbolic because the details of the new Nato-Russia rapprochement have already been hammered out. The two sides have agreed to co-operate on terrorism and proliferation of weapons, missile defence, search and rescue, civil emergency planning and peacekeeping operations.

Russia's co-operation with America in response to the 11 September attacks laid the ground for the accord, which will focus particularly on international terrorism.

Diplomats hope the new relationship will extend further, however. One said last night that if the new dialogue proved successful, no areas of policy would be off-limits.

Discussion will take place in a format of all 20 countries meeting together, to dispel Moscow's worries that the 19 Nato members will agree among themselves and then present Russia with a fait accompli. Ahead of the meeting, Mr Putin hailed the accord as "a document that will change the quality of relations between Russia and Nato".

Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, the Nato secretary general, described it as an "amazing project which shows that we mean business".

But there was criticism from pressure groups that believe the West will now turn a blind eye to Russian behaviour in Chechnya. Elizabeth Anderson, executive director for Human Rights Watch in Europe and Central Asia, said: "Russia is getting a shot at equal partnership in Nato even though its armed forces are notorious for human rights abuses in Chechnya."

And there were continued signs of tension over Nato's plans to enlarge and perhaps take in the Baltic states. Yesterday a Russian foreign ministry spokesman, Alexander Yakovenko, said of Nato expansion: "We see it unequivocally as a mistake. From whom is Nato preparing to defend its new members?

"Why is such a defence needed if we are no longer enemies and the period of confrontation is over?"