Mr. Arafat called Mr. Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount "a vehicle for what they had decided on: the military plan."

Mrs. Whitman's campaign called the President's visit blatantly political and demanded that Mr. Florio's campaign be assessed the estimated $45,000 cost of the trip.

People's Daily had earlier called Mr. Alatas's visit - the first by an Indonesian Foreign Minister since relations were suspended in 1967 - a "great event."

Not over trade or nuclear proliferation but on the protocol of what to call Mr. Hu's visit.

"That's what an engineer would call my visit to the avian lair?"

Mr. Mitchell called the secretary's visit a "special occasion" because of his "personal touch and presence."

Mr. Cowell called his visit to Kenya "one of those things which will sort of change your life."

In an interview on emerging from the basilica today, President Fox called the pope's visit to Mexico a "revolution of spirituality."

Ellison called his visit to Islam's third-holiest site, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, as "personally moving".

There, visitors may watch potters at their wheels and, if they call in advance, time their visit to coincide with the start of a firing.