UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is attending the three-day conference for the first time and will give a keynote speech while Hillary Clinton, the Democrat senator of New York, will also attend.

While originally not expected to attend, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will now show up after a brief visit to Iraq, conference officials told reporters.

"It appears likely that Secretary Rumsfeld will attend the
conference in Munich," Pentagon spokesman Lawrence DiRita had said in an earlier statement. "We are in contact with the conference coordinators and are currently working through scheduling issues."

Rumsfeld had been mulling whether to attend this year since a complaint was filed with a German prosecutor in November seeking a criminal investigation into the role he and other top US military and civilian officials played in torture and abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

But Germany's federal prosecutor on Thursday announced that he will not act on the complaint.

It will be interesting to see how Rumsfeld or his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, sells the new approach of healing old wounds over Iraq being expounded by the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on her current whirlwind tour through Europe and the Middle East.

Transatlantic unity a must, says conference organizer

Conference organizer Horst Teltschik said he believes the topic is one that must be addressed if security is to be achieved and maintained.

"As I see it, a European policy designed to provide a counterweight to the USA will more likely lead to a division of Europe rather than to its unification," Teltschik said ahead of the conference.

Hopes for lasting peace in the Middle East, following pledges from the Israelis and Palestinians this week to end the bloodshed, will also feature strongly in discussions, sources close to the event said.

UN chief Annan meanwhile is to give a speech entitled "A More Secure World: The Role of the United Nations," the content of which remains under wraps. He will also be presented with the conference's Peace Plaque awarded to international personalities who stand for special peace initiatives reflecting the motto of the conference, "Peace through Dialogue."

The event dubbed the "Davos of the security world" after the prestigious economic summit in the Swiss ski resort has had some of its shine removed by the absence of the British and French defense ministers, Geoff Hoon and Michele Alliot-Marie respectively.

German and NATO officials to attend

But German Defense Minister Peter Struck and Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer will be there, as will NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer (photo), who will have a wider platform to answer questions on his recently raised possibility of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization force playing a role in Middle East peacekeeping.

Around 4,000 police officers will guard the conference which takes place at an exclusive hotel. No fewer than eight demonstrations are planned around the venue, according to police.