Twelve Greenpeace protesters were arrested and charged after they rode inflatable dinghies out to a ship carrying coal in a port north of Sydney and painted an anti-APEC slogan on its hull.

Australian authorities have warned they will be taking no chances with security for the 21 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders in Sydney for the September 8-9 summit.

Some 5,000 police and soldiers are patrolling the city by land, sea and air while a massive steel and concrete fence has been built around meeting venues in the city's tourist centre to protect the leaders.

In case of an emergency, an early warning system has been installed throughout Sydney's central business district to sound a siren and broadcast messages to the public.

"We hope that we never have to use it, but it is part of the security measures that we've put in place for APEC," New South Wales state Premier Morris Iemma said.

As Australia's biggest security operation threatened to overshadow the APEC summit, Iemma said he was expecting some protesters would try to incite violence during demonstrations this week.

"My message to them is, don't," he said.

"But if you do, the police will be out in force, and they'll enforce the law and they'll do so with strength and authority."

Prime Minister John Howard, who will host US President George W. Bush, China's President Hu Jintao and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the summit, said he wished the security measures did not have to be implemented.

"Nobody likes it. The alternative is not to have the meeting," he said.

The arrests came as the first APEC meetings opened in Sydney.

Police charged 11 of the protesters with malicious damage for painting "Australia Pushing Export Coal", a play on the APEC acronym, on the hull of the NSS Endeavor as it sat moored off Newcastle north of Sydney.

The twelfth person was charged with dangerous navigation.

The group also unfurled a banner, written in Chinese, suggesting that Australia and the US are attempting to undermine the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.

Their actions were condemned by Iemma.

"People have got a right to make their point as a protest and do so lawfully," he said. "But that's an act of vandalism."

Greenpeace said the slogan, which was painted in non-toxic paint, was designed to draw attention to Australia's agenda to export coal despite the environmental cost of the greenhouse gas emissions produced by the fossil fuel.

"Australia's climate policy is to push export coal and to hell with the consequences for the planet," Greenpeace campaigner Ben Pearson said.

"Real action on climate change means moving away from coal and shifting to clean, renewable energy and we don't have the luxury of time for expensive talkfests that have no concrete outcomes."

Several peaceful protests are planned for the September 2-9 APEC Leaders week, including a rally at Sydney's Town Hall on Saturday which is expected to draw up to 10,000 supporters.

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