The IMF and World Bank issued a joint statement on Friday urging Singapore to allow accredited activists to attend the high-profile event, while World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz and non-governmental groups have slammed Singapore's decision.

On Monday, Singapore police said the list of banned activists included people who had disrupted World Trade Organisation ministerial conferences in Seattle in 1999 and in Cancun in 2003.

"No country in the world offers foreigners the unfettered right of entry," police chief of staff Soh Wai Wah told a media briefing.

In Singapore, a public gathering of more than four people requires a police permit. The last time a public demonstration took place in Singapore was in the late 1980s.

Soh said that while the World Bank and IMF had the right to accredit civil groups, Singapore had to ensure the safety of some 16,000 delegates who include central bankers such as Europe's Jean-Claude Trichet and the US Federal Reserve's Ben Bernanke.

The police said they had objected to only a handful of the 508 activists that the IMF and World Bank had accredited. One of those barred had been responsible for breaking into World Bank headquarters to steal documents and for taking over a consulate in San Francisco, the police said, without naming the individual.

Activist Walden Bello, one of those on the blacklist, told Reuters that the police may have been referring to him.

Bello said he had published a book in 1981 based on leaked documents from the World Bank and had also staged a sit-in in the Philippines consulate in San Francisco in 1978 to protest against the regime of former Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos.

"What crime would a 60-year-old person pose to national security?" said Bello, executive director of Philippines-based Focus on the Global South.

VOLLEYBALL COURT PROTEST

While Singapore sees the IMF-World Bank meetings as an opportunity to show off its economy and its ability to host world class events, it has insisted it will not change its existing rules to allow demonstrations by foreign protest groups.

Now, the dispute over protests has cast an unwelcome spotlight on Singapore's political restrictions and curbs on freedom of expression.

"There will be opportunities for the civil society organisations to make their views heard," Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng told local media on Sunday.

Singapore has designated an area for protesters within the convention centre where the meetings will take place.

The 50-square-metre space, smaller than a volleyball court, is near booths where activists can fill out forms if they want to apply for a permit to protest outside the cordoned area -- but still inside the conference centre.

The police said such applications are usually processed within five days. Outdoor protests are banned during the meetings, as the police said these could be used by terrorist groups to stage attacks.

Activists have said they plan to protest on the nearby Indonesian island of Batam instead.

Separately, police told the press conference that they were investigating opposition politician Chee Soon Juan for distributing leaflets publicising a protest march on Sept. 16.

(Additional reporting by Fayen Wong)

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