Police launches patrolled New York's East River on a hazy fall morning as world leaders wound their way past roadblocks and x-ray machines on Saturday into a UN headquarters on its highest-ever state of alert against terrorist attack.
Inside the long, low General Assembly building with its distinctive concave roof, and in the adjoining 38-storey green glass secretariat building, security measures produced a degree of confusion.
Visiting diplomats and reporters wandered unfamiliar corridors and hallways, unable to take the direct route to briefing rooms and conference halls.
Dozens of US secret service agents accompanying President George Bush on his first visit to the United Nations since he took office in January wore black coats which paradoxically proclaimed their status in large yellow letters.
Outside, hundreds of New York city police stood beside the large orange grit trucks which have blocked all streets leading to the UN since the September 11 destruction of the city's World Trade Center in a terrorist attack.
Bureau Report