CNN News 23/04/08

The latest leg of the protest-plagued Olympic torch relay brought the flame to Australia Wednesday, with demonstrators vowing to show up 500-strong and police countering with special powers to stop and search them.

Shortly before the flame arrived, police arrested a man and a woman who were trying to unfurl a banner on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Later in the day, after the flame was whisked to an undisclosed hotel to avoid anti-China protesters, police detained four more people for hanging another banner on a street sign.

Police spokeswoman Rebecca Walsh said the two incidents were the only ones in the metropolitan area that police had been notified of by Wednesday afternoon.

But authorities are prepared for more protests when the actual relay gets underway in the capital city of Canberra on Thursday.

The route, already truncated from 20 km (12 miles) to 16 km (10 miles), will thread past the Parliament House and within yards of the Chinese embassy.

Police put up meter-high fences along the route to keep the 80 torch runners safe from protesters. About 350 police officers have been preparing for weeks, armed with special powers to stop and search people for prohibited items -- from guns to eggs.

"We're quite optimistic, having talked to all the parties involved, that it's going to be peaceful," a spokesman for the Australian Federal Police said. "But we're obviously prepared in the event that it gets out of hand."

Paul Bourke with the Australian Tibet Council said he expected about 500 supporters to descend on Canberra Thursday to protest peacefully. Thousands of Chinese students are also expected at the relay.

Early Wednesday morning, members of the Tibet Council used lasers to spell out slogans on the pylon wall of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The slogan -- "Don't torch Tibet" and "China, Talk to the Dalai Lama" -- were beamed on to the bridge wall about 1 a.m. after the floodlights had been turned off, Bourke said. They protested a plan to carry the torch through Tibet and China's refusal to negotiate with the Tibetan spiritual leader.

"We believe it would be unnecessarily provocative to run the torch relay through the Tibetan areas," Bourke said.

He added that the International Olympic Committee, in awarding the Olympic Games to China, said it would be a force for good in the country. But it hasn't happened, Bourke said.

"There's still four months left for China to honor its commitment to the rest of the world and it can do so by negotiating with the Dala Lama to work toward a lasting solution to the Tibet issue," he said.

Several hours after the laser light display -- and shortly before the torch touched down -- a man and a woman were arrested as they tried to unfurl a banner on the Harbour Bridge. Walsh, the police spokeswoman, would not confirm local media reports that the pair were trying to unveil a Tibetan flag.

Police cited the two protesters for violating a law that requires a permit for any displays from the bridge.

The man, 40, and the woman, 30, were both from the suburbs of Sydney and were fined 141 Australian dollars ($133).

Later in the day, three men and a woman were arrested for hanging a banner from a street sign at King's Cross, Walsh said. Police took the protesters away for interrogation.

Supporters of Tibet denounce the Chinese government's stance toward Tibet. And many believe China should not have been awarded the honor of hosting the Olympic games, which are scheduled to begin on August 8 in Beijing.

The torch relay has been dogged by protests in several cities.

Stops in London, England; Paris, France; and San Francisco, California, attracted tens of thousands of demonstrators and dozens of arrests.

But stops in some countries, such as Argentina, Tanzania and Oman, have been trouble-free.