US President George W. Bush will have a most heavily guarded inauguration in history on Jan. 20 when he takes the oath of office for his second term, a Washington Post report said Monday.

The noontime swearing-in at the Capitol and the parade that will follow will draw tens of thousands of people, including a large number of protesters.

Led by the Secret Service, authorities began planning eight months ago for the first post-Sept. 11 inauguration, and they have an array of resources that were not available four years ago, including new communications technology and advanced methods of screening, according to the report.

Before, during and after the inauguration, Washington D.C. police and US Park Police helicopters will hover overhead, able to beam live images from the scene, and the surveillance will be monitored by authorities at various command centers run by the many agencies working on security.

The main one is the Multi-Agency Coordination Center in Fairfax County, Northern Virginia, a gleaming steel-and-marble complex, where the Secret Service and 50 federal, state and local agencies will monitor action in the sky, on the ground and in the subway system.

More than 4,600 law enforcement officers will be posted along the parade route, including hundreds of undercover officers in the crowd, as well as sharpshooters with rifles on rooftops.

Officials say they know of no specific threats relating to the inauguration and the evening balls. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said last week that intelligence monitors are picking up less terrorist threat chatter, in general, than a year ago.

Security officials say the most likely terrorist threat is a truck bomb -- one of the reasons they are barring vehicles from a wide swath of downtown Washington on Inauguration Day.

D.C. police plan to erect roadblocks and screen pedestrians around an area covering more than 100 square blocks in the center of official Washington. People will have to pass through at least one of the 22 checkpoints along the parade route and through metal detectors.

Protesters will be allowed to demonstrate in seven areas, but signs cannot be attached to anything that could be used as a weapon. No large backpacks, camera bags, thermos bottles, coolers, picnic baskets, strollers or umbrellas will be allowed on the parade route or the Capitol grounds.

The military will have bomb jammers -- devices that have been used in Iraq and can block or delay someone using a cellphone or other remote gadget from detonating an explosive, and anti-terror preparations include the use of mobile and stationary chemical and biological sensors that will sniff the air in subway stations, on the National Mall, in buildings and on the streets.

Military radar will monitor the sky from ground stations throughout the city and aircraft aloft.

The Federal Aviation Administration announced that it will triple the no-fly zone over Washington that now prohibits small aircraft within 16 miles of the Washington Monument, and the North American Aerospace Defense Command will have increased air patrols over Washington by multiple jet fighters.

Source: Xinhua