At least six Chinese security personnel will travel with the Olympic flame in Canberra next week, with two expected to jog on the route, contrary to earlier assurances.
Organisers admitted last night there was confusion about the arrangements involving the "flame attendants", with less than a week to go before the global event comes to Australia.
As workers in Canberra began erecting barricades along the national capital route yesterday, the relay controversy continued in the Indian capital of New Delhi last night.
About 200 Tibetan activists were arrested in the vicinity of the relay which was reduced to a mere 2.3km and lasted only about 30 minutes. Participants were running barely a few metres each, along a tightly guarded avenue running from the presidential palace to India Gate.
Working with a group of about 200 Chinese Olympic and security officials, about 16,000 police and soldiers guarded the flame virtually sealing it off from the public amid fears pro-Tibet protesters would copy the wild demonstrations of the Paris and London legs.
Earlier in New Delhi, thousands of members of the world's largest community of exiled Tibetans protested against the arrival of the torch, holding rallies and staging alternative relays of Buddhist prayer lamps.
Meanwhile, the barricades for the Canberra leg were erected yesterday along Parkes Way, part of the route for Thursday's relay, the only Australian appearance of the "Journey of Harmony" in the lead up to the Beijing Olympic Games in August.
The relay will begin at Reconciliation Place and end in Commonwealth Park. Organisers hope the flame will travel in a rowing eight across Lake Burley Griffin.
It was revealed yesterday that the relay would begin at 8.30am and end by noon.
At one stage the organisers said the relay would begin at 9.30am and might stop for a lunch break.
However, it has now been decided to compress the relay into one session and to begin earlier.
Concerns over security mean the torch is expected to travel only on wide streets which will be lined with barricades. Police have been given tough powers to search people suspected of carrying "prohibited items" which could be used as weapons. Police will attempt to keep thousands of Chinese students apart from a much smaller crowd of pro-Tibet supporters.
Canberra authorities had previously said only two Chinese flame attendants would be in the convoy and would travel in a bus, emerging only if the Olympic flame needed to be relit.
This was the position put in Beijing last week by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as he tried to allay concerns the track-suited paramilitary officials might clash with protesters, as occurred in London and Paris.
The London 2012 Olympics chief, Sebastian Coe, has described the Chinese torch guards as "thugs".
ACT Attorney-General Simon Corbell said that there would be three flame attendants two on the ground and one riding pillion on a police motorcycle.
"One of them will be on a motorbike that goes from where the current runner is to where the next runner is waiting," Mr Corbell said yesterday.
"He will go forward to where the next runner is waiting to assist that runner with lighting the next torch because each runner has a torch and it needs to be lit from one torch to another and the gas has to be turned on and off.
"Another person will be with the person who is currently running and their role will be strictly to give instructions to the runner, to slow down or speed up depending on what's happening ahead or behind.
"The other person is part of the relay process I'm sorry I can't recall what their role is but there will be one person ahead, one behind and one with the torch at all times.
"They will have no security function and they will be with the flame purely for the purposes of helping the flame carrier stay in sync with the rest of the relay.
"I understand the attendants are provided by the Chinese Olympic organisers and I understand they draw on the same pool of people who have travelled with the flame throughout its journey."
ACT torch relay taskforce chairman Ted Quinlan also said the flame attendants would help with lighting the individual torch held by each runner.
"There is a ceremonial role to be played by a couple of attendants passing the flame from torch bearer to torchbearer, they are going to facilitate that," he said.
"In order that the relay keeps moving, that has to happen on the run and that particular role of attending the flame belongs to the Chinese, they are the holders of the sacred flame. We are responsible for holding the relay but we're not responsible for the flame.
"We are expecting there will be two or three people active in the change over process and seeing as though they've all got to go 20km, they will need some reserves but those reserves will stay on the bus.
"I'm hoping there are only half a dozen, three active and two or three reserves. I think there's more available and travelling from spot to spot along the route."
Mr Quinlan denied the messages from various officials associated with the relay had been inconsistent. "But where there has been a failure is, it's not been fully explained," he said. "There is ever the problem to ensure that we get the messages right. A couple of times I've been a bit nervous the message has been misinterpreted."
The first runner is an indigenous leader and former Young Australian of the Year, Tania Major.
She will light the torch at the official lighting ceremony that will feature an indigenous smoking ceremony.
After her run, she will hand over to Olympian and former South Australian governor Marjorie Jackson-Nelson. The 79th runner is Ron Clarke, who lit the cauldron at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games. Olympic gold medallist Ian Thorpe is the final runner, who will run into Commonwealth Park and light a cauldron on Stage 88 to the accompaniment of massed Chinese drummers. with AFP