Will protests snuff out torch relay?

PARIS -- Thousands of rowdy demonstrators forced cancellation of the last leg of the Olympic torch ceremony in Paris on Monday with repeated attacks on the procession, escalating international protests over China's human-rights record ahead of the 2008 Games in Beijing.

The growing movement against this Olympic tradition has left some Olympic officials considering whether to curtail the 58-day pageant, during which the flame is scheduled to travel 85,000 miles through 21 countries.

On Monday, about 3,000 French police officers, some spraying Mace, sought to guard the 17-mile route. They were often unable to stop demonstrators, many of them waving Tibetan flags, from surging onto the streets. At least three times, the torch was extinguished and the athletes retreated for protection into buses.

On Wednesday, the torch is scheduled to be carried on a six-mile procession through San Francisco, its only U.S. stop. Organizers are bracing for thousands of pro-Tibet demonstrators, and police said they would station hundreds of extra officers on the city's streets. Protesters climbed cables on the Golden Gate Bridge on Monday and unfurled giant banners reading: "One World, One Dream, Free Tibet '08."

Mayor Gavin Newsom was huddling with police to consider last-minute changes to the torch's route and new security measures.

In recent weeks, pressure has been mounting on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to respond to complaints from activists and politicians that China's lack of political freedom is incompatible with the values in the Olympic Charter. Officials have responded that they are concerned about Tibet but that the IOC is not a political organization and cannot strong-arm the host government.

Amid reports of the chaos in Paris, IOC President Jacques Rogge mentioned Tibet by name Monday. "I'm very concerned with the international situation and what's happening in Tibet," he said in Beijing. "The torch relay has been targeted. The International Olympic Committee has expressed its serious concern and calls for a rapid peaceful resolution in Tibet."

The Chinese People's Liberation Army entered Tibet in 1950. The Dalai Lama, leader of Tibetan Buddhism, fled to India nine years later amid an uprising. He is based in India today, along with a Tibetan government-in-exile. A number of rights groups and celebrities have championed the cause of Tibet independence for years; Chinese officials' suppression of recent demonstrations in Tibet and the surge in protests abroad have drawn new international attention.

In Paris, the assaults began almost simultaneously with the first relay runner's departure from the starting point, the Eiffel Tower. Green Party activist Sylvain Garel lunged for the passing torchbearer, shouting "Freedom for the Chinese!"

As they made their way along the streets of Paris, athletes were surrounded by Chinese security teams and French police on in-line skates. Police on horseback, bicycles and motorcycles filled the streets. Black-suited divers patrolled the Seine river, and helicopters monitored overhead.

But barely 30 minutes from the Eiffel Tower, protesters closed in, forcing the torchbearer to extinguish the flame and seek refuge inside a bus for several minutes. Two hours later, as the wheelchair-using table-tennis player Emeric Martin rolled by the Trocadéro plaza holding the unlit torch aloft, he and two colleagues were pelted with plastic juice bottles, fruits and other items by pro-Tibet demonstrators. They retreated to a bus.

Near the Louvre Museum, a torchbearer was forced inside the bus again when a protester approached with a fire extinguisher. Chinese officials ordered that the torch bypass City Hall after local officials hung a banner outside declaring: "Paris defends human rights everywhere in the world."

Later, with the relay dragging hours behind schedule, Olympic organizers and the Chinese Embassy halted the procession 3.5 miles from its end and carried the torch in a bus for the rest of the route.

The protests were an escalation of demonstrations that disrupted the relay Sunday in London, where 37 people were arrested.

The growing protests illustrate the deep divide between many national governments -- which are developing trade ties with China and are reluctant to offend an emerging economic power -- and their citizens, who often take a harder line on human-rights issues. Recent surveys show that more than half the people in France, Switzerland and Denmark want their countries to boycott the opening ceremony Aug. 8.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has threatened to boycott the opening ceremony. Spokesmen for President Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said they plan to attend. On Monday, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton called on Bush to boycott the opening unless China improves on human rights.

Information from The New York Times is included in this report.