'No force' will halt torch relay

Beijing Olympic organising committee spokesman Sun Weide has pledged that "no force" will prevent the continued passage of the global torch relay ahead of this summer's Games.

Pro-Tibet protests have marred the European leg of the relay, with 37 people arrested in London on Sunday and further problems 24 hours later in Paris, where the torch had to be extinguished on three occasions before the relay was cut short by officials.

But Weide said: "No force can stop the torch relay of the Beijing Games."

There was more trouble ahead of the next leg of the relay in San Francisco on Tuesday as police in the city arrested seven people after a handful of protesters scaled the Golden Gate Bridge and unfurled pro-Tibet banners.

But the groundswell of opposition in San Francisco ahead of the relay, which will see 80 torchbearers carry the flame on a six-mile route along the city's Bay area, suggests that more trouble lays in store for the Beijing organisers.

"If the IOC [International Olympic Committee] allows the torch to proceed into Tibet they'll have blood on their hands," San Francisco protester Laurel Sutherlin told reporters in comments quoted by BBC Sport.

The Olympic flame is scheduled to visit a total of 20 countries before arriving in Beijing in August.