Tokyo: Japanese authorities have cancelled a public celebration linked to the Beijing Olympic torch relay later this month in the city of Nagano due to security concerns, a local official said today.

Nagano, which hosted the 1998 Winter Olympics, had planned to host an hour-long torch party on April 26,with a Japanese drum concert and prize draws of Olympic memorabilia at a stadium with a capacity of 35,000 people.

But city official Koichi Yajima said: "Because many of our city officials and security guards need to monitor the torch relay itself, we can t afford to have this additional event.

"We had planned this event to create an welcoming mood, but the circumstances changed."

Yajima said there were no plans to change the route of the torch relay, which has been dogged by human rights protests in most of its stops so far.

The early stages in London and Paris were overshadowed by demonstrations against Beijing's crackdown on protests in Tibet. The third state in San Francisco was drastically curtailed and seen by relatively few people.

Tibetan exiles in India say more than 150 Tibetans have been killed in China s crackdown on the protests against its rule of the Himalayan region. Beijing says Tibetan "rioters" have killed 20 people.

Japan has been working in recent years to repair relations with China, its largest commercial partner, despite long-standing tensions over wartime memories.

The torch will travel through 21 cities, including Hong Kong and Macau, between Greece and mainland China. It will arrive in Nagano from Canberra and then go on to Seoul.
Source : PTI