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IOC to study future Olympics torch relay plans
Xinhua
Updated: 2008-08-05 16:02
BEIJING -- The International Olympic Committee will review the torch relay for future Games in an attempt to avoid a repeat of violent protests that disrupted this year's relay for the Beijing Olympics.
"The torch relay attracts media, the media coverage attract protesters," IOC president Jacques Rogge said in his address to the start of the 120th IOC session.
"The executive board will study the conditions of the relay."
Within the IOC there was increasing talk of limiting future torch relays to the nation hosting the Olympics after the international leg of the Beijing Games relay was marred by Tibetan separatists and their supporters.
But Rogge stressed that dropping the international leg may not help.
"It would be wrong to think that by simply eliminating the international leg we will make all the problems disappear," he said.
"By staging a domestic Olympic torch relay we are not solving the problem. Let's not forget that during Turin there were significant protests."
The 2006 Turin Winter Olympics torch relay was targeted by Italian protesters over issues like urban planning and sponsors.
The torch relay was introduced at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.