OTTAWA (Reuters) - Raising eyebrows from experts about possible risks to security, the Canadian government published on the Internet precise floor plans for this summer's G8 summit, which U.S. President George W. Bush (news - web sites) and other leaders are to attend.
Federal public works spokeswoman Fran Gershberg said on Thursday that the plans -- attached to a tender to wire the summit site for communications systems -- were taken off the Internet this week after nearly seven weeks of public access.
She said it was normal to make plans publicly available, and police insisted security had not been compromised.
But independent experts said it did pose questions, and the Liberal government came under heated pressure in Parliament.
"It's been important to secure floor plans for meeting sites since the mid-1980s, and you'd sort of think the lesson had sunk home by now," said John Thompson, director of the Mackenzie Institute, which specializes in security issues.
"It's unprofessional and embarrassing."
The opposition Canadian Alliance's leader in Parliament, John Reynolds, demanded: "Does the government believe that terrorists and others who (would) disrupt this summit can't surf the Web?"
Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien will host the summit of leaders from the Group of Eight industrialized nations -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States -- in the remote Rocky Mountain resort of Kananaskis, Alberta, in late June.
Chretien chose the site because it was small, forcing a more intimate meeting, and because it was isolated and thus safer than cities like Genoa, Italy, last year's site.
Security will be very tight, with the public, demonstrators and most media kept well away from the leaders, and police from across the country roped in to help. Airlines are already warning of delays in flights to nearby Calgary because part of the airport will be open for official planes only.
Recent international gatherings have been dogged by protests against globalization and capitalism, often with the goal of trying to stop the meetings. One demonstrator was killed in Genoa at the height of the protests there.
But since the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, concern has grown about the possibility of attacks on the leaders themselves.
Thompson said that because of Kananaskis' isolation, the security threat from the documents was not that great.
Outside the security perimeter, the nearest "crest line" from which a potential terrorist could fire at a window of the meeting room was six to eight km (four to five miles) away.
"There are not that many terrorist weapons that can reach that far, and certainly nothing that can be carried by a single person," he said.
Toronto's Globe and Mail newspaper revealed the existence of the documents on Thursday and published a precise floor plan of the summit meeting room, showing seating arrangements and giving the precise distances between chairs and windows.
But in Alberta, Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokesman James Johnston said the floor plans are irrelevant since the whole area will be secured.
"It really has no security implications at all," he said.
Gershberg said the documents had been taken off the Web as a precaution as the result of the Globe inquiry.
They were not being put back up because it was too late for new contractors to start the tendering process.
University of Toronto security expert Wesley Wark said the government would have to adjust its plans.
"Clearly what's going to happen is the government's going to have to make some changes to some of the details of plans for the arrangement of security cameras and the locations of particular individuals...which were detailed on that Web site," he said.
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