Australia torch relay may be shortened after clashes

By Rob Taylor

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australian organizers of the Olympic torch relay through the capital Canberra said on Tuesday they were looking at route changes to boost security after protesters disrupted its progress through Paris and London.

The torch, which twice had to be extinguished during chaos in Paris on Monday, is due in the Australian capital later this month, but organizers said they were now looking at shortening the route to make it easier for police to control.

China has condemned as "vile" a growing campaign by activists to use the build-up to the Beijing Olympics as a stage on which to condemn China's record in Tibet, on human rights in general and to attack its foreign policy.

"This was a great opportunity for us to present Canberra to the rest of Australia and to the rest of the world, and we were looking forward to that opportunity," said John Stanhope, Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory, or ACT.

"We are still hopeful we can do that, but here we have a level of anxiety of course about what we have witnessed and the prospect of that being repeated here," Stanhope said.

Scenes of British and French police clashing with protesters have raised fears Australian police may be unable to provide adequate protection for the expected 80 torch bearers.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, visiting London for talks with his British counterpart Gordon Brown before leaving for Beijing, said China would not be permitted to have its own tracksuit-clad security detachment for the torch in Australia.

"We, Australia, are providing that security," the Mandarin-speaking former diplomat Rudd told Australian media.