Thousands of police officers could be called on for the summit

He confirmed all police leave had been cancelled and officers would respond to security requirements at the time.

Mr McConnell said he wanted to minimise inconvenience to people and businesses close to the event to be held at Gleneagles, Perthshire, in July.

He called for protests surrounding the arrival of the world's leading powers at the hotel to be made peacefully.

The annual international summit is often the focus of protest and at Genoa, Italy, in 2001, it descended into violence.

Police leave has been cancelled and we expect anything up to 10,000 police officers to be required Jack McConnell

It has been suggested that up to 200,000 people could travel to the Scottish meeting, many to take part in protests such as the one organised by the Make Poverty History campaign.

The first minister said: "Police leave has been cancelled and we expect anything up to 10,000 police officers to be required depending on the information we have at that time.

"There has been some concern expressed on a fairly regular basis by local businesses and local residents in the Perthshire area.

"We want to minimise the impact on their daily life, although we also want to secure the maximum publicity for Perthshire internationally as a fantastic location at the heart of Scotland and ensure that they get benefits from this summit, whatever temporary inconveniences are in place.

Thousands of police officers could be called on for the summit

"I genuinely hope that we can have the vast majority of the summit in peaceful protest that shows the opinion of not just Scots but others in advance of the leaders' meeting."

Responding to reports of possible court closures and a water cannon being brought in during the summit, Mr McConnell said none of those plans had been put in place.

He said: "There were a number of claims about scrapping all trials in Edinburgh Sheriff Court, about every criminal sheriff court bar one freed up to deal with G8 custodies.

"They may well have been options but they are not currently in place. I can't predict what would happen if we suddenly had intelligence that something extremely serious was going to happen."