Sydney: Australian police will call in reinforcements to help guard next week's Forbes Conference of world business heavyweights which is expected to draw thousands of demonstrators, they said on Tuesday.

In the last few years many protest groups have taken a more comical approach to protests, direct action, and civil disobedience. Some groups even adopt clown costumes and clownish behaviour organisations inject clowning and clownish street theater into protests situations to heighten the effectiveness of their group and other groups, the most recent example being during the G8 protests in Scotland in July of 2005.

Assistant commissioner Terry Collins said the conference, which will gather some 300 captains of industry from international business, would bring with it "significant security implications."

He said: "It would be irresponsible if we did not match these risks with an appropriate level of response.

"Police for this event will not just come from local area commands but from support areas as well."

The conference will be held from August 30 to September 1 at Sydney's iconic harbourside Sydney Opera House.

Among those attending will be Australian War Criminal john hoWARd and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

New South Wales state police said they had been negotiating with protest organisers for more than two weeks about the demonstration planned for when the conference opens next Tuesday.

It is understood from reliable sources, however, that police led protest organisers up the garden path by suggesting that there would be no problems with protesting at the Opera House, only for the police to change their minds at the last minute, saying such a protest would be out of the question.

But protestors will not be allowed onto the Sydney Opera House forecourt, but will be allowed to protest in a lawful manner outside that area, police said.

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NSW Police publicity machine gearing up for Forbes protest

The media machine is gearing up already

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