Olympic flame carried through a quiet New Delhi

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By the time the torchbearers had traversed the shortened New Delhi route of the round-the-world relay, protesters had come nowhere near the Olympic flame and only a few hundred selected guests had managed to see it at all.

Security was among the tightest ever in central New Delhi, with rings of protection first, Chinese in blue tracksuits; then, Indians in red ones surrounding torchbearers as they jogged from the presidential palace to the India Gate monument, which commemorates India's dead in World War I.

India has the world's largest community of Tibetan exiles, many of whom see the torch relay ahead of this summer's Beijing Olympics as an important stage to protest Chinese rule over Tibet. Thousands held a peaceful mock torch relay earlier Thursday elsewhere in New Delhi, and protests were also held in other Indian cities, including Mumbai, where 25 people who tried to storm the Chinese consulate were detained.

Much of New Delhi's leafy British colonial-era center the administrative heart of India, home to Parliament and government ministries was closed to traffic and pedestrians. Streets were sealed for blocks around the route, which had been sharply cut back to about two miles by worried organizers and officials.

The route left the 70 runners, who ranged from athletes like tennis star Leander Paes to Bollywood celebrities, able to jog for just a few seconds before handing the flame to the next person.

Several buses of police followed the runners along the route, where the crowds amounted to little more than a couple hundred young people sitting on bleachers wearing T-shirts of a torch relay sponsor, Coca-Cola, and a couple hundred members of India's Chinese community.

The televised scenes of the sparse streets, though, were clearly outweighed by the Indian authorities' desire to avoid the chaos of torch runs in London, Paris and San Francisco.

When trouble did break out Thursday, police quickly brought it under control.

Small groups of protesters repeatedly emerged from side streets a few blocks from the relay route, many shouting "Free Tibet!" and scattering pamphlets, but were hustled away by police. Authorities refused to disclose how many people were arrested.

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