The meeting of the G7 leaders may be held in the French town of Biarritz over the coming weekend, but the fact Biarritz is just 32 kilometers from the Spanish border means the police presence in north Spain has also been massively beefed up.

Acting Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande Marlaska confirmed on Thursday that 1,878 Civil Guards and 932 members of the National Police force will join the 4,000 Ertzainas (Basque regional police) in providing security for the event.

These extra police will take on functions such as controlling the border between Spain and France, providing intelligence gathering and carrying out joint operations with their French counterparts.

Speaking from the city of San Sebastian in northern Spain at the Center for Coordination of Operations (CECOR) which has been established for the summit, Marlaska explained that there was an "important coordination effort" being carried out by Spain and France in order to ensure the "security of the G7 summit" and a counter-summit which is being held in Spain to protest at the policies of the G7.

The acting minister explained that several months ago France had asked Spain to help with providing security for the G7.

"There has been a lot of work carried out where we decided on the necessary operation in order to assure security," he added.

The security operation is expected to cause big problems for travelers returning from their holidays over the last weekend in August.

The Spanish Directorate General of Traffic has advised travelers to avoid using the border crossings in the Basque Region of Spain between Aug. 24 and 26, advising them to use the AP-7 road in La Jonquera, despite this being in the province of Girona over 500 kilometers away.