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| Torch relay may fizzle in face of white-hot pro-*test*-('")s Olympic chiefs may snuff torch relay The International Olympic Committee will consider scrapping the Beijing Olympics torch relay, amid fears of further violent pro-*test*-('")s like the ones seen in London and Paris. IOC President Jacques Rogge said the committee's executive board would discuss on Friday whether to call off the 20-country relay after anti-China pro-*test*-('")ers vowed every leg would be dogged by pro-*test*-('")s. The IOC board will also review the status of international legs of the relay at future Olympics, long-standing Australian IOC board member Kevan Gosper told reporters. Speaking in Beijing, where the IOC board is meeting, Gosper took aim at the pro-*test*-('")ers, saying their actions were fuelled by a hatred of China. "All I can say is we are desperately disappointed,'' Gosper said. "They just take their hate out on whatever the issues are at the time, and that hate against the host country is being taken out on our torch.'' He said he hoped the Beijing relay could go ahead, and warned the pro-*test*-('")ers would only harm their cause. Rogge said he was "deeply saddened'' by this week's violence in London and Paris, and was concerned about what would happen when the torch reaches San Francisco tomorrow. Three demonstrators angry over China's crackdown in Tibet yesterday scaled the US city's landmark Golden Gate Bridge, and more pro-*test*-('")s are planned along the torch's route tomorrow. London, which will host the 2012 Games, has already raised the possibility of abandoning the international relay, with organisers saying they were only committed to a domestic leg at this stage. "We are firmly committed to a strong domestic leg. We may have an international leg. We just don't know yet,'' a spokeswoman for London Games said. Craig Reedie, the British IOC member, said the chaos surrounding the current Beijing torch relay would influence the decision. "Now is probably not the best time to start planning it,'' he said. "Britain will wait to see what the IOC has to say about all this.'' The shadow over the relay is looming large as Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd flies to China, amid pressure from some to boycott the Beijing Games opening ceremony over China's actions in Tibet. Mr Rudd's calls for talks between Beijing and Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama have already prompted Chinese complaints, but he plans to continue to push this position. "There have been such contacts in the past, they need to be resuscitated,'' Mr Rudd said in London before leaving for China. There was no sign today that pro-*test*-('")s aimed at the torch relay - promoted by China as a "journey of harmony'' - would abate. The head of media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF), who spearheaded yesterday's Paris pro-*test*-('")s, has vowed to follow the torch to San Francisco. "Each time the flame moves one kilometre, there will be problems. It is not to going to end here,'' warned Robert Menard, whose group also disrupted the lighting of the flame in Athens last month. "We were the only ones to pro-*test*-('") when the Games were given to Beijing ... the world's grea-*test*-('") dictatorship. "Our goal is not to spoil the party, it is to force the heads of state of democratic countries ... to say 'If there is no improvement on human rights, I will not be at the opening ceremony'.'' Beijing Games organisers' spokesman Sun Weide insisted the Olympic torch relay would continue "with the support of people all over the world''. "No force can stop the torch relay of the Beijing Games,'' he said. Beijing - which has denounced the pro-*test*-('")s as "vile'' - is trying to stage the longest and most dramatic Olympic torch relay of all time, visiting 19 countries plus China during a 137,000-kilometre journey. But pro-Tibet activists - furious over a recent crackdown by China and what they call nearly six decades of neglect living under the Chinese - are determined to use it as political tool. Tibetan exile leaders say the recent crackdown has left more than 150 people dead. China denies the claims, instead saying Tibetan "rioters'' have killed 20 people. http://www.theage.com.au/news/beijing2008/...7420375617.html |