Ottawa: An international torch relay will not be held ahead of Canada's 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, organizers said, insisting it was not in response to protests of this year's Beijing Games.

Vancouver Olympic Committee chief executive John Furlong told broadcaster CTV that organisers had never planned to hold a global relay.

Instead, the flame was expected to arrive in Canada directly from the site of the ancient Olympics in Greece, and then be carried across the country by some 12,000 torch bearers over 100 days prior to the start of the 2010 Games.

"We had never contemplated running legs of the relay in other parts of the world," Furlong said from Beijing.

"Our effort was always going to be about sharing the torch with Canadians," he said.

Today, the International Olympic Committee is to discuss canceling the international torch run at all future Games beyond 2010.

The IOC has already said it would not cancel the last leg of the current torch run for the Beijing Games, despite recent protests that followed the flame in London, Paris and San Francisco.

The Olympic flame is now headed for Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Source : PTI