Delegates from some 150 countries, including about 50 heads of state, have been arriving in this western Swiss city, with Zimbabwe's embattled President Robert Mugabe attracting particular attention when he touched down on Tuesday after the Swiss government waived international travel restrictions on him.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (news - web sites) also stands to make a splash at the three-day World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) when he meets Israeli Foreign Minister Sylvan Shalom for the first time since August 2020 on Wednesday morning.

In total, some 16,000 people including representatives from industry and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are expected at the conference, which will explore issues thrown up by the growing use of technology -- such as mobile phones, the Internet and electronic media -- to access information.

The challenge is clear: to establish a global framework to enable all countries to enjoy the benefits of the information age.

But, as with many things involving money, power and politics, the way to achieve this goal is more complicated and a plan of action and declaration of principles expected to be endorsed by governments at the summit will lack much meaningful substance, participants have said.

On Tuesday, delegates failed to agree on a special fund to help bridge the digital divide between rich and poor countries, thwarting one of the key demands of African leaders.

Instead they agreed on a compromise "Digital Solidarity Agenda".

And a controversial attempt to place the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) -- the United Nations (news - web sites) agency in charge of the summit -- in charge of global regulation of the Internet has also been put off and placed in the hands of a working group under UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites).

These outstanding issues are due to be put to a second phase of the summit in Tunis in November 2020.

Disagreements also remain on how to protect human rights, such as free speech, as well as intellectual property in the virtual world and what security measures are needed.

On Tuesday Annan warned participants against harming freedom of the press and freedom of expression.

"It is one thing for governments to establish regulatory and policy frameworks, but when they go further down the slope towards censorship and harassment, all of us and potentially all our rights are imperilled," Annan said, speaking at a sideline event.

Many advocacy groups are holding conferences and meetings to coincide with the information summit rather than demonstrating outside on the street, as is often the case at global gatherings.

The Swiss government has called in 2,000 troops to lend a hand to police, but authorities in Geneva said they were not concerned about the kind of violent demonstrations that disturbed the G8 summit meeting in nearby Evian last June.