TORONTO, (Reuters) – Toronto police arrested a man  near the G20 meeting site yesterday whose car contained a  chainsaw, crossbow and fuel containers, but officials said  later the case did not appear to be tied to the summit.

The 53-year-old man was pulled over just a block from where  tall steel fences have been erected to protect leaders of the  Group of 20 advanced and emerging economies who meet tomorrow and Sunday in Canada’s most populous city.

The battered silver sedan had a large crate strapped to its  roof. Also found in the car was the man’s dog.

“We do not believe it is G20-related,” G8/G20 spokeswoman  Catherine Martin said last night.

Toronto Police Constable Hugh Smith told local television  the suspect had “no reasonable explanation for the weapons that  we observed that were in physical plain view.” It was the third security-related arrest in recent days  before the G20 and G8 summits. Canada is spending C$1 billion  on security, deploying thousands of police from across the  country to protect two summit sites surrounded by 10-foot-high  (3-metre) steel fences set in concrete.

Earlier this week, police arrested a man and his wife in an  upscale neighborhood in north Toronto on explosive and firearms  charges.

The Integrated Security Unit, which is overseeing security  for the summits, did not say what, if any, direct threat the  two may have posed, but said there was “no risk to public  safety at this time.”

Today and tomorrow, leaders from the Group of Eight  industrialized nations will meet in Huntsville, Ontario, about  two hours’ drive north of Toronto. The G20 will then gather in  Toronto tomorrow and Sunday.

The summits will focus on the global economic crisis and  are expected to attract thousands of protesters who plan to  press anti-poverty and pro-environment agendas.

Police hope to avoid clashes like the 1999 “Battle of  Seattle” that disrupted trade talks in that city, and protests  during the Summit of the Americas in Canada in 2001 that police  used tear gas to disperse.

Police have already arrested a number of protesters this  week in Toronto, although marches have generally been  peaceful.

Thousands of protesters demonstrating for aboriginal rights  marched through the heart of downtown Toronto yesterday,  flanked by police on bikes and followed by others on  horseback.

“No tar sands on sovereign Native land,” the group chanted  in reference to the oil sands projects in the western Canadian  province of Alberta.