Graz welcomes back Schwarzenegger

All smiles: Mr Schwarzenegger consigns the row to the past

Arnold Schwarzenegger has visited his Austrian home city Graz for the first time since it removed his name from its main football stadium in December 2005.

City officials were angry with the California governor for refusing to grant clemency to a death row inmate.

But in a sign of thawing relations, Mr Schwarzenegger has made a private visit to the city.

He met politicians and 84-year-old Alfred Gerstl, a friend who helped him early on in his bodybuilding career.

During the dispute, Mr Schwarzenegger's name was erased from the city's main website as well as the football stadium.

He then made clear he wanted nothing more to do with Graz and returned a Graz "ring of honour" that had been given to him.

But on Sunday he was greeted by Styria regional governor Franz Voves and other local politicians as he arrived for the first leg of a European tour that will also take him to France and the UK.

Mr Voves was quoted as saying he was sure Mr Schwarzenegger was no longer upset about the dispute, which erupted over Mr Schwarzenegger's refusal to pardon former Los Angeles gang leader Stanley "Tookie" Williams, who was executed for murder in 2005.

Mr Schwarzenegger was born in 1947 in the village of Thal, just outside Graz in southern Austria.

He was accompanied on his Graz visit by his 17-year-old daughter Katherine and one of her friends.

He became a naturalised US citizen in 1984 but still has Austrian citizenship. He was elected governor of California in 2003.