Torch supporters, protesters mark Japan relay leg

By Chisa Fujioka

NAGANO, Japan (Reuters) - Hundreds of Chinese students waving red flags and signs such as "One World, One Dream, One China" gathered in Nagano for the next leg of the Olympic torch relay in Japan on Saturday, chanting and blowing whistles as they vied for attention with pro-Tibet protesters.

Elsewhere in the central Japanese city, a former Winter Games venue, a memorial ceremony was due to be held at a Buddhist temple for all who died in recent riots in Tibet, in a further sign of reconciliation just hours after China said it would hold talks with the Dalai Lama's aides.

Police used fences and riot trucks to separate rival groups in Nagano, host to the 1998 Winter Olympics, as light rain fell ahead of the start of the relay at 8:30 a.m. (2330 GMT).

Supporters holding Chinese flags, mixed with some Japanese and Olympics emblems, lined the relay route, outnumbering protesters concentrated near Nagano's railway station.

Chants of "Free Tibet" mixed with "Go China" from the rival groups, who took one side of the street each with tense police separating them.

One person was hurt in a skirmish between torch supporters and Japanese right-wing activists, Japanese television reported.

Japan is anxious to avoid the chaotic scenes that have marked some of the global relay, with just over a week until President Hu Jintao makes the first visit to Japan by a Chinese president in a decade.

But tensions were running high, even after Chinese state media said on Friday Beijing would hold talks with representatives of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Buddhist leader of Tibet, whom it blames for the unrest.