Olympic flame lands in Kazakhstan, security tight

The Olympic flame arrived in Kazakhstan to pomp and tight security yesterday on the first leg of a global torch run certain to draw anti-China protests ahead of the August games in Beijing.

Fans cheered and waved colourful flags as a Chinese Olympic official carrying the flame in a lantern emerged from an airplane after arriving in Almaty, a city tucked in the slopes of the Tien-Shan mountains 500kms east of China.

A group of women clad in traditional Kazakh dress greeted the delegation with flowers as Jiang Xiaoyu, vice president of the 2008 Olympics organising committee, and other officials stepped on the tarmac.

The first stop in the international leg of the 130-day global relay, Kazakhstan sees the flame's arrival as a moment of national pride as the oil-producing nation seeks to raise its global profile and emerge as a regional player.

At last week's flame-lighting ceremony in Greece, activists unfurled banners condemning China's human rights record, and on Sunday a small group of protesters tried to block the flame's handover to Beijing officials.

Protests are rare in Kazakhstan, a tightly-run former Soviet nation, and there was no sign of rallies as the flame arrived.

But, determined to stave off any unrest, Kazakhstan has deployed 4,500 police to patrol the streets of Almaty, once a sleepy Soviet-built town and now a booming financial centre.

Itself subject to Western criticism over its often patchy rights record, Kazakhstan is due to greet the flame in a grand ceremony in the mountains south of Almaty today.

President Nursultan Nazarbayev and top government and industry officials are due to attend. Most parts of the city are to be cordoned off entirely today for a string of symbolic torch relays.

The Olympic flame is due to return to Beijing on August 6 after travelling throughout China, two days before it is used to light the cauldron at the Olympic Games opening ceremony.