Olympics-IOC to review Games torch relay after protests

BEIJING, Aug 5 (Reuters) – The International Olympic Committee will review the Games torch relay after violent protests tainted this year's carrying of the flame for the Beijing Olympics, its president said on Tuesday.

IOC chief Jacques Rogge said the executive board would look at how the torch relay is staged, but ruled out dropping the long-standing Games tradition.

"The torch relay attracts media, the media coverage attract protesters," IOC President Jacques Rogge told his organisation at the start of its 120th session. "The executive board will study the conditions of the relay."

The international leg of the Beijing Games relay was hit by demonstrations against China's human rights record and policies regarding Tibet and Sudan's Darfur region.

This infuriated the IOC, which accused protesters of using a symbol of peace to highlight political issues unrelated to a sporting event.

Demonstrations started in Olympia, Greece, at the traditional torch-lighting ceremony at the site of the ancient Greek Games, with demonstrators coming within metres of Chinese officials speaking during a globally broadcast event.

Protests then quickly spread to London, Paris and other cities through which the relay passed, before the torch reached China for a trouble-free domestic leg.

"It would be wrong to think that by simply eliminating the international leg we will make all the problems disappear," Rogge said.

"By staging a domestic Olympic torch relay we are not solving the problem. Let's not forget that during Turin (2006 winter Olympics relay) there were significant protests."

That relay was hit by a series of protests by Italians over issues as varied as regional urban planning and Games sponsors.

"We will always hold the torch lighting ceremony in Olympia and we will always hold a Greek relay," Rogge said.

The torch relay, whereby the flame lit from the sun's rays in Olympia is passed from torch to torch carried by thousands of runners, was introduced before the 1936 Berlin Olympics.