The Olympic torch arrived in China's capital on Tuesday after a jubilant reception in the quake-ravaged southwest, as Beijing tries to choreograph a happy ending to its troubled international tour. Beijing's residents have been warned they will face sweeping security to prevent any more trouble - and bad publicity - on the last leg of the tour ahead of Friday's opening ceremony. “This is the pride of the Chinese people,” worker Xu Min said amid cheering crowds watching the flame in Chengdu, capital of quake-hit Sichuan province where 70,000 people died in May. The International Olympic Committee (IOC), which promised the Games would be an “unforgettable moment in Olympic history”, also tried to reassure visitors and athletes that the smog which often envelops the capital would not pose major health problems. But not everyone is convinced. Members of the US cycling squad arrived at Beijing's swanky new airport terminal on Tuesday wearing black respiratory masks. The IOC's medical chief said it was an unnecessary move, and the US Olympic Committee urged the Chinese not to take offense. The last leg of the Olympic torch's mammoth 130-day tour starts at Beijing's Forbidden City on Wednesday, before touring landmarks like Tiananmen Square. The sun made a welcome appearance on Tuesday afternoon as a light breeze dispersed the pollution-fuelled haze that had earlier obscured a skyline boasting numerous futuristic new Olympic venues and towers bearing testimony to China's new wealth. Authorities have spent a fortune - around $18 billion - on cleaning up Beijing. Drastic measures have included taking nearly 2 million cars off the street and shutting factories. But they can do little about the cloying summer heat. In a bid to show openness, police have been told not to interfere with foreign journalists' work or with anti-government speeches, even if they tackle the banned spiritualist movement Falun Gong, or independence for Taiwan, Tibet or Xinjiang. They can only intervene if there is “drastic action that attracts a crowd or affects public order” on the capital's Tiananmen Square or other politically sensitive sites. The rules were introduced after an outcry in the Hong Kong media over police shoving reporters covering the chaotic last-minute sale of Olympic tickets late last month. An officer was kicked in the groin and taken to hospital. The rules also bar police from blocking camera lenses of photographers and television cameramen covering news or damaging their equipment. Law enforcement authorities are not allowed to seize camera memory cards, the document said, adding that reporters cannot be taken to police stations for questioning in “ordinary cases”. Police were also told not to interfere in foreign journalists' interviews with evicted residents, farmers deprived of land, laid-off workers, discharged servicemen, anti-Japanese, anti-French and human rights activists, the document said. Pound slams IOC Former IOC vice president Dick Pound slammed the IOC on Tuesday for the way censorship of Internet sites by Chinese authorities had been handled ahead of the Games, claiming it had done considerable damage to the organization. The 66-year-old former president of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) added that what should not have been the IOC's problem had been made their problem. The scandal arose last week when it was revealed that a range of internet sites had been barred by Chinese authorities - something which the head of the IOC's Press Commission Kevan Gosper revealed on Tuesday had been resolved. However, that did not sit well with the frank-talking Pound. “With regards to Internet access there appears to have been last minute progress achieved,” said Pound. “However, there has been considerable damage done to us and in my part of the world what was somebody else's problem has become ours. “This should not have been in the glare of press discussions in August 2008 as we have all known that this could be a problem ever since Beijing were elected and we should have taken whatever steps necessary. “This turned into our problem when it shouldn't have been.” Pound, who ran third to Jacques Rogge in the election to succeed Juan Antonio Samaranch as IOC president in 2001, called on Rogge to investigate the matter fully when the executive board came to review the Games. “The problem with Internet access should not have happened,” admitted Rogge.
