SINGAPORE: Christmas has started early in the island republic with major streets including Orchard Road and Marina Bay lit up and decorated with huge Christmas trees and ornaments with festive lights strung across the road.

Most of the malls have also started playing Christmas carols and jingles as part of Singapore's efforts to "entertain" the 10,000-odd participants of the week-long Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Summit.

Singapore, known for its extravagance in organising international events, is playing host to a series of Apec meetings this year, the 20th anniversary of the 21-member grouping.

The bill for the week-long event is a whopping S$100mil.

While this has irked many Singaporeans, especially those from the medium and low income groups, Singapore authorities feel the event was a good way of promoting the country.

A Singapore Tourism Board (STB) official said the Christmas celebrations were the best way to attract tourists to Singapore.

"We need people to constantly come to Singapore as tourism has been badly affected since the outbreak of the H1N1 pandemic," the official said.

With world leaders expected to stay on here until the weekend, Singapore is not taking any chances with security.

Thousands of armed policemen and armed Gurkhas have been deployed round the clock at Suntech City, one of the main venues for the summit.

Leaders who have confirmed their attendance include US President Barack Obama, Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

Najib is also expected to hold some bilateral meetings with several leaders including Chile, Australia, Vietnam and Russia.

Apec was formed in 1989 as an informal ministerial-level dialogue group with 12 members to cooperate on regional trade and investment liberalisation and facilitation.