Martin Benedyk

Military helicopters buzzed overhead and sharpshooter police and soldiers kept watch from rooftops as Queen Elizabeth II of Britain on Wednesday began her first overseas trip since the July 7 bombings in London.

Security in this tiny Mediterranean island nation was tight following reports that Islamic terrorists might be planning to target the three-day Commonwealth summit which begins Friday.

Still, applauding well-wishers were allowed to line the sidewalk of the narrow medieval street in the Maltese capital's historic center where the monarch's motorcade passed.

In early evening, the queen took a 10-minute walk past the crowds as thousands of Christmas lights, decorating the street, twinkled overhead.

A Buckingham Palace official, briefing reporters in Malta on condition of anonymity in accordance with royal policy, said intelligence checks had found nothing to back purported threats to the queen, but acknowledged that security had been tightened.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair was expected to attend the summit, which is held every two years to allow leaders of the 53 Commonwealth nations to consult on issues including trade, human rights and debt.

A mounted detail of helmeted police preceded the queen's car as it headed to her first appointment: talks with Maltese president and former longtime conservative prime minister, Eddie Fenech Adami.

Maltese crowded balconies and pressed up against windows in buildings lining the street for a glimpse of the queen, who arrived two days ahead of the summit 's opening.

Recently retired officers from Malta's national police department were called back to duty to beef up the nation's security forces.

Several hours before the queen's scheduled arrival at Valletta's airport, police in bulletproof vests and armed with automatic rifles joined soldiers on foot or in vehicles to ring the perimeter of the airport, some 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the historic center of the capital.

Police boats were deployed in the harbor. On Thursday, the queen will go aboard a British military ship which sailed into the harbor in honor of her visit, her first to Malta in 13 years.

"For her age, she still looks fantastic," onlooker Rita Grech-Mallia, said of the 79-year-old monarch. The Maltese woman recalled being let out of school as a child in the 1950s for a previous visit by Elizabeth.

Elizabeth was scheduled to depart on Saturday, a day before the meeting's close.

Malta, which includes three inhabited islands lying strategically between north Africa and Italy, gained independence from Britain in 1964 and joined the European Union last year.

Fifty-six people were killed - including four suicide bombers - and more than 700 were wounded in the July 7 explosions on three London subway trains and a bus during the morning rush hour.

Associated Press November 23, 2005 Wednesday