US President George W. Bush arrived in Maastricht yesterday for a two-day visit to the Netherlands.
On top of his agenda is a visit to the Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial in the nearby town of Margraten to commemorate Victory in Europe Day.
Maastricht is the first Dutch city liberated by the Allied forces in the Second World War and the cemetery is the only US military cemetery in the Netherlands.
Bush will hold talks with Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and Dutch Queen Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard on Sunday morning before leaving for the cemetery where he will honor the US soldiers who lost their lives during the war.
He arrived here from Latvia and will go to Moscow later Sunday to join other world leaders in attending the May 9 grand ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.
Just before his arrival, thousands of people took to the streets in several Dutch cities in protest against Bush's visit. They held up anti-Bush banners and shouted anti-Bush slogans.
Some anti-Bush organizations published articles on their websites denouncing Bush's foreign policy, especially the war on Iraq in 2003. They said that Bush has been doing in a very different way from what he is preaching.
This is Bush's second visit to Europe after his re-election in last November. He came for a fence-mending tour in February.