ATHENS, Greece (AP):

Greek officials handed over the Olympic flame to organizers of the Beijing Games yesterday amid small protests by a pro-Tibetan group.

The ceremony was held at the marble Panathenian Stadium, where the first modern Olympics were staged in 1896.

Outside the stadium, police scuffled with pro-Tibet demonstrators and prevented others from unfurling protest banners. At least 20 demonstrators were detained, authorities said. The protesters challenged a police cordon but failed to disrupt the final leg of Greece's torch relay - from the Acropolis to the stadium.

Human and animal rights

"Our aim was to call attention to human and animal rights abuses in China," detained protester Roza Minakouli, a 65-year-old environmental campaigner, told The Associated Press by telephone.

"We have no business sharing the flame with people who do not deserve it."

The protesters chanted "Save Tibet" and unfurled a banner which read "Stop Genocide in Tibet".

Police security was tight inside the stadium and around the city following small protests by pro-Tibet and human rights groups at the March 24 flame-lighting ceremony and during the week-long Greek leg of the torch relay.

At yesterday's ceremony, Hellenic Olympic Committee president Minos Kyriakou delivered the flame to chief Beijing organizer Liu Qi. The flame will arrive in Beijing today.

"The Chinese government and its people will host a grand welcoming ceremony and officially launch the torch relay of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games," Liu said. "The torch will for the first time ascend the summit of the world (Mount Everest), thereby testifying to the great strength of the Olympic movement in marking the progress of human civilisation."