The flame was brought to Tiananmen Square amid tight security

An elaborate welcoming ceremony for the Olympic symbol was held in Beijing's Tiananmen Square on Monday before it embarks on a 19-nation relay – the longest in Olympic history.
 
The square was closed off for the ceremony, with only a few selected visitors and officials issued with special passes allowed to approach the area.

The relay was officially begun with a carefully choreographed ceremony to relight the Olympic torch headed by Hu Jintao, the Chinese president.
 
Earlier Liu Qi, chief of China's Olympic organising committee, brought the flame to China on a specially-charted plane from Greece landing at Beijing's main airport on Monday morning before a cordoned-off crowd of flag-waving supporters.

Sporadic protests against Chinese rule in Tibet and the recent crackdown on protests in the region disrupted the flame's journey around Greece before its arrival in Beijing.

A week ago pro-Tibet demonstrators scuffled with police outside the Panathenian stadium in ancient Olympia as Greek officials handed over the Olympic torch to organisers of the Beijing Games.

Human rights activists and Tibetan demonstrators disrupted the globally televised torch-lighting ceremony, breaking a security cordon and unfurling protest banners.

Relay

Olympic torch relay

The modern tradition of the torch relay began in 1936 at the Berlin Olympics

This year will see the longest ever Olympic torch relay, travelling 137,000 kilometres

Relay visit 19 nations over 130 days

First destination is Kazakhstan

On the final leg, will travel through China, including through Tibet at to the summit of Mt Everest

Click here to go to the official torch relay site

The city is the first stop on an odyssey through 19 countries during April that will be followed by a three-month tour around China.

Pro-Tibet groups and other human rights groups have said they plan to hold protests along the torch relay route.

The torch is also due to pass through Lhasa, the scene of bloody riots in mid-March, and to the top of the Tibetan side of Mount Everest.

China has come under heavy pressure from the international community to moderate its crackdown on protests and to open a dialogue with the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader.

Boycott 'insulting'

Prominent nations, however, have shied away from following call from pro-Tibet groups to boycott the Olympics.

Protesters have vowed to disrupt the international leg of the torch relay [Reuters]

At the weekend Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, told The Washington Times that it would be "insulting" to the Chinese people if Washington boycotted either the opening ceremony or the Games themselves.

"I don't see the benefit of boycotting," Rice said.

Although Chinese authorities are thought to have largely locked down dissent in Tibet and surrounding regions, protesters in other parts of the world continue to demonstrate against China's rule in the Himalayan region.

In Nepal on Sunday, a group of 200 Tibetan exiles and Buddhist monks tried to storm the Chinese embassy visa office in Kathmandu but they were beaten back by police using bamboo batons.

At least 130 protesters were arrested and several injuries were reported among the demonstrators and policemen.

The protesters reached the metal gate of the fortified compound and tried to kick and push their way in.

Tibetans have protested in front of the office in the past, but this is the first time they reached the gate.

Uprising

In Tibet itself the state-controlled Tibet Daily newspaper announced that the director of the region's ethnic minority and religious affairs commission had been replaced.

He is believed to be the first political casualty of the unrest.

Activists in Tibet began rallying on March 10 to mark a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule.

Demonstrations erupted into widespread rioting in Lhasa and spread to neighbouring Chinese provinces. 

Beijing says the rioters killed 18 civilian by-standers and two police officers.

Exiled Tibetan groups have put the death toll from the Chinese crackdown at between 135 and 140 Tibetans, with another 1,000 people injured and many more detained.

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