Police in Australia arrested seven people today during the Beijing Olympic Games torch relay through the capital Canberra after scuffles between pro-China and pro-Tibetan activists at the starting point.
As many as 10,000 flag-bearing China supporters and 2,000 pro-Tibetans converged on Canberra, police said.
A lone protester on the road in front of Australian Olympian Robert De Castella as he carried the Olympic torch through Canberra today
Two pro-China activists were held after clashes with Amnesty International members at Reconciliation Place, where an aboriginal ceremony was held before the first runner took the torch to a women's rowing team that transported it across Lake Burley Griffin.
Protests and tight security have followed the Olympic torch around the world over the past month, putting China's domestic and foreign polices under the spotlight ahead of the Games in August.
Beijing had hoped the torch's progress would be a symbol of unity in the run-up to the Beijing Games. However, it has turned into a public relations nightmare, forcing host countries to protect the torch with security measures usually afforded a state leader.
Anti-Chinese protests during the previous relay legs have sparked a wave of patriotism amongst Chinese at home and abroad, and today thousands of Chinese packed the start and finish of the torch relay in the Australian capital.
"This is a magnificent day for us today to show that Australia can have a peaceful rally. Watching overseas protests, I felt shamed that they can behave like that," Wellington Lee from the Chinese Association from the Victorian state said.
Chinese six-deep lined the 16 kilometre relay route, and hundreds of cars drove around Canberra carrying Chinese flags.
"It was highly organized. Australians will feel a little bit uncomfortable by the fact that communist China came to town and just showed it can buy anything," free-Tibet supporter and Australian Greens Senator Bob Brown said.
Anti-China protests have largely focused on Beijing's crackdown against demonstrations by Tibetans in China earlier this year.
Unlike London, Paris or San Francisco, where torch bearers were jostled by anti-Beijing protesters as they ran, in Canberra a heavy police presence, steel barricades and the city's wide boulevards ensured runners were unobstructed. The Australian relay cost A$2 million (€1.2 million).
In Washington, Deputy US Secretary of State John Negroponte called on China to stop vilifying the Dalai Lama and instead start talks with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader. Beijing has accused the Dalai Lama of being behind March 14th riots in Tibet's capital, Lhasa, and unrest that followed in other ethnic Tibetan areas, as part of a bid for Tibetan independence and to ruin the Olympics.
The European Parliament had urged EU leaders to boycott the opening ceremony at the Games unless China starts talks with the Dalai Lama. In retaliation, there have been Chinese calls to boycott European, especially French, businesses.
EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson today spoke out against calls from both sides for boycotts, saying they only served to "deepen differences, create massive resentment and make dialogue much harder".