Swiss lock down ski resort ahead of WEF

ZURICH (Reuters) - The Swiss air force began patrolling a no-fly zone over southeast Switzerland on Friday, as up to 5,000 troops geared up to guard the world's movers and shakers meeting in Davos next week.

About 400 soldiers were mobilised last week to help local authorities, while police were also put on standby in other parts of Switzerland and in neighboring countries like Germany.

The streets of Davos have been quiet at recent World Economic Forum (WEF) meetings, once a magnet for anti-globalization protests, as police have sealed off the resort from potential troublemakers.

As a result, protest organizers are even encouraging people to snowboard into town to avoid checkpoints, or slog across the icy Strelapass in snowshoes or cross-country skis.

Television pictures of world leaders, to a backdrop of powdery drifts, are a staple of January news broadcasts every year, beamed around the world and boosting the resort's -- and Switzerland's -- profile.

Swiss authorities are keen to keep adverse publicity to a minimum and want coverage focused on the discussions taking place in Davos's congress center, rather than events on the streets outside.

Protecting the 2,400-odd businessmen and politicians -- this year including British Prime Minister Tony Blair and German Chancellor Angela Merkel -- at the annual WEF meeting costs some 8 million Swiss francs ($6.4 million).

Swiss authorities pay three quarters of this, keen on the profile that comes with hosting the annual bash at a resort famous for its top-notch, high-altitude skiing.

The relative isolation of Davos, the self-styled "highest town in Europe" at more than 1,500 meters (almost 5,000 ft) above sea level, makes it far simpler to isolate it from demonstrators and security threats than major cities.

DIRECT ACTION

Most demonstrations against the WEF are planned for Saturday, the penultimate day of the Jan 24-28 meeting which is also when trade ministers are planning to meet on the sidelines.

Anti-globalization protestors plan to assemble in Zurich on Friday evening and make the at least 150-km (90-mile) way to Davos via various intricate routes in an effort to avoid police checkpoints, where in previous years they have been turned back.

Protestors say the WEF represents the globalizes economy, which they say exploits most of the world's people and resources.

NoDemo 07, an umbrella organization of NGOs, is encouraging "creative and direct action" such as blockades in unusual places, information stands, street theater, "absurd interventions" and flash mobs.

Another demonstration is already scheduled in Basel for the Saturday and in previous years there have been protests -- sometimes violent -- Zurich, the federal capital Berne and Landquart, a railway junction where police sometimes turn people off Davos-bound trains.

But demonstrators may not need their snow gear this time.

Amid unseasonal warmth Davos, like most of the Alps, is still suffering a snow shortage, even though its ski area peaks at some 2,800 meters, so those outdoors interviews -- and protest marches -- may lack some of their traditional wintry backdrop.

And if Blair, Bono or Bill Gates want to hit the pistes, their choice will be significantly narrower than usual -- less than a third of Davos's 305 km of marked runs were open on Friday.