An undercover newspaper reporter exposed a serious breach of royal security today by working as a footman at Buckingham Palace for two months.

The Daily Mirror's Ryan Parry used bogus references to get a job while the police and royal staff were preparing for the visit of President George Bush.

Parry was due to serve breakfast to President Bush's top aides this morning, the newspaper said.

Today's issue of the paper includes pictures of Parry dressed in red livery and shots of The Belgian Suite, which is being used by the president and Mrs Bush, the Queen's breakfast table and the Duke of York's room, complete with soft toys.

Buckingham Palace launched an immediate investigation into the security breach.

Parry wrote in the Mirror: "Had I been a terrorist intent on assassinating the Queen or American president George Bush, I could have done so with absolute ease.

"Indeed, this morning I would have been serving breakfast to key members of his government, including National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice and US Secretary of State Colin Powell.

The Queen and Duke exchanged handshakes with Mr Bush and his wife Laura, as they were officially welcomed to the palace this morning.

Unusually, President and Mrs Bush had stayed overnight at the Palace before the arrival ceremony.

The first salvo of a 41-gun salute was fired from nearby Green Park as the visiting VIPs stepped from the Palace to board a presidential motorcade.

Protesters standing behind barriers close to Green Park attempted to interrupt the official arrival ceremony with one man using a loud speaker to chant his objections at the controversial visit.

But their efforts were drowned out bythe band of the Grenadier Guards and the Corps of the Drums of the Battalion playing the Americann national anthem.

Reporter Parry excluded details of his journalistic career from his CV and included one fake reference and a real one, the newspaper claimed. Parry claimed no rigorous security checks were done on his background.

He left the Palace at midnight after the arrival of President Bush and his wife, the newspaper said.

President Bush was told about the security breach, but White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said: "We have every confidence in the British security,"

Tony Blair's official spokesman said: "Everyone acknowledges that this raises concern, and it is right that there is a full investigation, which is what the palace has announced this morning,"

Anti-war protesters and environmental campaigners last night offered a taste of what is to come in the three-day visit .

The playwright Harold Pinter compared the American administration to Nazi Germany, while the anti-war MP George Galloway called Mr Bush a "dangerous, arrogant, foolish, bible-belted fundamentalist, right-wing warmongering fanatic president" at a rally organised by the Stop the War coalition. While the anti-war rally spilled into the gardens of the Friends Meeting House in Euston, several hundred environmental campaigners set off from Holborn, central London, under banners showing the President and the words: "Wanted for crimes against the planet" and "Bush go home".

But these were only an advance guard for today's demonstrations and the climax tomorrow in which at least 100,000 are expected to march through the capital to a rally in Trafalgar Square. There, a statue of the world's most powerful man will be toppled in a symbolic echo of the toppling of Saddam Hussein.

The Prince of Wales greeted the President and his wife at Heathrow airport before they took a helicopter to spend the first of three nights at Buckingham Palace. In the city centre, the eco-activists made the first signs of a reaction to their arrival. Several hundred of them set off from Holborn to march to the United States embassy behind floats rumbling along to a drumbeat.

Gerry Wolff, a member of the Campaign Against Climate Change, said: "America's emissions of carbon dioxide are enormous. I feel the ordinary men and woman have to express their anger about these appaling policies and this is the only option we can use."

Debbie Haig, from Holloway, north London, said: "I particularly object to President Bush's policies and the way he seems not to care at all about the environment. The first thing he did was to refuse to sign the Kyoto Treaty in Japan.

At the Friends Meeting House, hundreds of protesters gave a rapturous welcome to campaigners including the former Labour MP Tony Benn at a rally designed to galvanise support for Thursday's demonstration. Andrew Murray, chairman of the Stop the War Coalition, said Mr Bush was "the most unwelcome visitor to these shores since William the Conqueror". Mr Pinter said the US "more and more resembles Nazi Germany in its ambitions" claiming it aspires to total control of the world. Mr Galloway said the President was "mad, bad and dangerous to know. This president, who hears voices, on Tuesday must hear 100,000 British people saying 'go home George Bush, we don't want you here'." Ron Kovik, the Vietnam veteran turned peace campaigner, told protesters they had a "rendezvous with history".

Outside the American embassy, Tony Juniper, director of Friends of the Earth, told green campaigners Mr Bush was "one of the world's arch environmental villains". Mr Juniper was joined by the former Environment minister Michael Meacher and Greenpeace UK's executive director, Stephen Tindale.

Nearly 2,400 police officers were on duty in London yesterday as the Metropolitan Police started its £5m operation to maintain security during the presidential visit. Scotland Yard said 4,307 officers would be on duty today, rising to, 5,123 tomorrow. Police will work a total of 14,000 shifts during the visit.

Mr Meacher said: "What people ... really resent is the selfishness of American policy in opting out when we all need to be part of the process in dealing with climate change, which ... threatens human survival in the next two or three centuries if we do not all take action."

But just as protesters railed against the war and the President's environmental policies, so the Government warned pupils not to take time off school to join them. Young people's minister, Ivan Lewis, in charge of the Government's school discipline policies, said unauthorised absence, for any reason, was truancy. "The message is very simple," he said. "The message is that it is absolutely legitimate that young people feel able to demonstrate their views, whatever those views may be. But it is not appropriate for them to be out of school when they should be in school.

PRESIDENT'S DIARY

TODAY: Palace greeting by the Royals, Tony Blair, two ministers, and dignitaries; Royal Salute from Guard of Honour at 9.55am; President gives lunchtime speech at the Banqueting House, Whitehall; meets families of victims of the twin towers attack.

In evening the President and the first lady attend a state banquet at Buckingham Palace.

TOMORROW: President lays a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior and tours Westminster Abbey' meets British veterans of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; holds talks with Mr Blair at No 10, then joint press conference at the Foreign Office. Lunch organised by the TV chef Nigella Lawson.

Leaders discuss HIV/Aids with representatives.

Mr and Mrs Bush host a dinner for the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

FRIDAY: Bushes fly to Sedgefield; leaders lunch with Mr Blair's constituents. Bushes fly to Washington in evening.

ALTERNATIVE SCHEDULE

TODAY: Alternative "state procession" through London, including lookalikes of George Bush and the Queen, starting at 11am from Jubilee Gardens and finishing at noon in Trafalgar Square; "Resist Bush" tea party outside Buckingham Palace, from 3pm; plays, poetry and anti-war films around London from 1pm until late; in Edinburgh, a rally at 2pm and from 6pm a march to the US consulate.

TOMORROW: March in London organised by Stop the War Coalition, the Muslim Association of Britain and CND. Starts at 2pm, Malet Street and ends in Trafalgar Square, where a statue of Mr Bush will be pulled down. Due to finish at 7pm; demonstrations in Cardiff, Sheffield, Bristol and other cities planned.

FRIDAY: Protest in Tony Blair's Sedgefield constituency from 10am; Guantanamo Bay protest at US embassy, 11am; petition handed to Scotland Yard at noon asking for Mr Blair to be investigated for war crimes.

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