Issue date: 4/3/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Associated Press Photo Bakhtiyar Artayev, Olympic boxing champion, runs with the Olympic torch at the Medeo speedskating stadium in the mountains outside Almaty, Kazakhstan, Wednesday.

ALMATY, Kazakhstan (AP) - The president of Kazakhstan ran with the Olympic flame Wednesday in a tightly guarded ceremony that he praised as a display of his country's tight relationship with China, the host of the Summer Games.

French athletes and officials promised dissent over Chinese policy after the torch reaches Europe, saying that athletes carrying the torch through Paris would wear badges celebrating free expression. The mayor of Paris said a banner supporting human rights would hang on city hall.

Kazakhstan was the first stop for the Olympic flame on its 130-day global tour. Protests against China's policies toward Tibet and Sudan were expected in several of the 21 stops ahead of the Beijing Summer Games, including London and San Francisco.

About 4,500 policemen were deployed to guard the ceremony in Almaty, the economic capital of the oil-rich nation former Soviet republic, which has become increasingly dependent on its economic and political ties with neighboring China.

"The fact that the city of Almaty became the first point of the Olympic flame's run proves China's good attitude to Kazakhstan, and Chairman Hu Jintao's good attitude to me personally," President Nursultan Nazarbayev, dressed in a white sports outfit, said before his short symbolic torch run at a mountain resort. Thousands of spectators waved flags and cheered.

"We are grateful for such good feelings toward Kazakhstan," the 67-year-old leader said.

A crowd greeted the chartered plane that brought the torch from Beijing. About 80 runners participated, including Kazakh athletes and government officials.

The cheering crowd mostly consisted of university students who were given a day off to participate in the festivities.

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