Chicago prepares for NATO summit

US president Barack Obama's hometown of Chicago is to be the venue of the NATO summit about the future of the foreign forces in Afghanistan, which commences on Sunday.

With more than 60 heads of state to attend the summit and tens of thousands of protesters also expected to converge on the city, this is the biggest event in the US state of Illinois since the 1968 Democratic National Convention which ended brutally.

Security is a primary concern and Obama's former chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, now the mayor of the city, is tasked with seeing the event through without incident.

Al Jazeera's John Hendren reports from Chicago.