TIRANA, Albania (Reuters) -- President George W. Bush arrived in Albania on Sunday, the first visit by a U.S. leader to the Balkan state that was once a closed, communist society but is now a close ally of the United States.

On the penultimate stop in Bush's eight-day European tour, Air Force One touched down in brilliant weather outside the capital, Tirana, and the president's motorcade drove into the city along a highway cleared of traffic.

During his seven scheduled hours in Albania, Bush will be spared the sort of protests that greeted his visits to Germany and Italy. Tirana was festooned with U.S. flags, welcome banners and huge posters of a smiling president, and a 21-gun salute boomed out in welcome for the head of state.

The streets were nearly empty: almost everyone was inside watching the arrival live on all of Albania's television channels. The city will name a street after Bush, and Albania has put his portrait on commemorative stamps.

Bush began talks with Prime Minister Sali Berisha, and was expected to reassure him that Washington's support for the independence of ethnic Albanians in the neighboring Serbian province of Kosovo was undiminished, despite Russia's strong opposition at the G8 summit in Germany last Friday.

Several hundred Albanians from Kosovo came to Tirana especially to see him and gathered in the main square watched by hundreds of police.

"The U.S. holds the key to the balance of power in the world, and for a small country like us, this is marvelous," said Tirana resident Lufti Zeneli. "They helped us in the liberation of Kosovo. America is fantastic."

Kosovo call
Albanians have been enthusiastic about the West since the collapse of the isolationist Stalinist regime in 1990.

But they have loved the United States since 1999, when then president Bill Clinton pushed reluctant European allies to intervene in Kosovo, Serbia's breakaway province with an ethnic Albanian majority.

Eleven weeks of NATO bombing -- the alliance's first war -- expelled Serb troops accused of killing civilians in a conflict with separatists, and the United Nations took over.

Washington is the main backer of a U.N. plan to make Kosovo independent this year, a move blocked by Russia, a Serbian ally.

During his visit to Italy on Saturday, Bush said the U.N. Security Council must act on the plan now.

Albania sees Bush's visit, the first by a U.S. president, as reward for its support over Afghanistan and Iraq, where Albania has a small contingent, and for giving refuge to some former Guantanamo detainees who cannot return to their home countries.

"The main purpose of this visit is one, to thank an ally in the war on terror and two, to visit an emerging democracy in eastern Europe that is making progress," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

"The president has visited almost all the new democracies in the eastern Europe over the last years, they have come a significant distance in a short period of time and he wants to honor and support them."

One in three of Albania's 3.3 million people said they wanted to see him up close, leading police to issue a public appeal for citizens not to come out on balconies, windows or terraces.

The Albanian parliament authorized the entry of more than 500 U.S. Marines into Albania, and agreed Albanian security officers would not carry guns while near the president.