Greeks to light Beijing flame

More than 1,000 police officers surrounded Ancient Olympia on Monday ahead of the flame-lighting ceremony for the Beijing Olympics amid fears that protesters angered by China's crackdown in Tibet could disrupt the high-profile event.

International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge was to attend the ceremony at the 2,800-year-old birthplace of the ancient games in southern Greece, together with Greece's Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis and President Karolos Papoulias.

Greek officials say politics have no place at the event, and have pledged to keep away any protesters — expected to be a small group. Meanwhile, China pledged strict security measures to ensure that the torch relay, which begins with the lighting ceremony, is not marred by protests.

The country's Communist leadership has faced a public relations disaster since demonstrations against Chinese rule turned violent March 14 in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, sparking waves of unrest in surrounding provinces. People who sympathize with the Tibetan cause have also staged rallies in other countries.

The death toll from the violence has varied and been impossible to confirm independently. China's reported death toll is 22 but Tibet's exiled government says 80 Tibetans were killed. Another 19 died in subsequent violence in Gansu province, it said.

Rogge told The Associated Press on Monday that he was engaged in "silent diplomacy" with China on Tibet and other human rights issues. But he also said there was no credible momentum for a boycott and that while he was concerned by the violence in Tibet, the IOC could do no more than call for a peaceful resolution because it is a sports organization.

The IOC head was briefly confronted in a hotel lobby in Olympia by Tenzin Dorjee, a spokesman for Students for a Free Tibet, which is was planning a protest during the ceremony and has called for Tibet to be removed from the Olympic torch route.

Dorjee expressed his demands in person, and the two men talked for about 10 minutes and made no statements afterward.

The weather was another concern for organizers of Monday's lighting. A forecast of rain forced officials to move the sun-reliant event an hour forward, hoping for a bright spell.

If all goes well, a Greek actress dressed in the white gown and sandals of an ancient high priestess will light the Beijing 2008 flame, using a convex mirror to focus the sun's rays on the Olympic torch.

Otherwise, the meticulously orchestrated ceremony will move indoors — among the ancient masterpieces of Olympia's archaeological museum — using a backup flame kindled during a rehearsal Saturday.

From Olympia, the flame will start on a 85,000-mile journey to Beijing, going through 20 countries before the Olympics open on Aug. 8. Chinese media reported that officials — who have blamed the unrest on the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama — were prepared to prevent a disruption of the torch relay.

China's plans to take the torch through Tibet and to the top of Mount Everest have upset Tibetan activist groups, which accuse Beijing of using the event to convey a false message of harmony in the troubled Himalayan region. Chinese Communist troops occupied Tibet in 1951 and Beijing continues to rule the region with a heavy hand.

"The more determined the Dalai clique is to ruin the torch relay and the Olympic Games, the more hard and good work we need to do on the preparation and the implementation of all aspects," Yin Xunping, a Communist Party official, was quoted as saying by the Tibet Daily newspaper.

Yin is party secretary of the Tibet Mountain Climbing Team, which is participating in the Mount Everest segment of the torch relay. He spoke at a meeting organized last week by Tibet's sports bureau, whose head, Dejizhuoga, urged "intense precautions and heightened security."

The report, cited Monday by the official Xinhua News Agency, did not give any details of what measures would be taken. A receptionist at the Tibet sports bureau said no officials were available for comment Monday.

Mount Everest straddles the border between Nepal and Tibet. China has already begun denying mountaineers permission to climb the Tibetan side of the mountain — a move that reflects government concerns that activists may try to disrupt its torch plans.

The first torchbearer in the relay will be Greece's Alexandros Nikolaidis, who won a silver medal in taekwondo at the 2004 Athens Games. He will hand the flame to Luo Xuejuan, who won China's only swimming gold medal in Athens.

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Associated Press writers Audra Ang in Beijing and Stephen Wilson in Ancient Olympia, Greece, contributed to this report.