Beijing has dispatched a specially trained team of 30 hand-picked paramilitary police in blue track-suits who ran next to the torch in London, Paris and San Francisco, according to Chinese media.

The muscular guards have come under fire for brusquely pushing aside demonstrators, who are using the torch relay to protest over China's human rights record and its controversial rule in Tibet.

'Japan will not welcome that,' Mr Shinya Izumi, chairman of Japan's National Public Safety Commission, said of the Chinese guards' tactics.

'It is our principle that Japanese police are in charge of security. It is our role to protect the relay,' the top security official told reporters.

'We have to establish strict rules to identify the escort runners,' Mr Izumi said.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has said Chinese security services would not play a role in protecting the torch on the Canberra leg of its international relay.

In Britain, Sebastian Coe, the London 2012 Olympics chief, was overheard by a broadcaster describing the torch guards as 'thugs'.

Jiji Press said that the Beijing Olympics committee had asked Japan to allow at least two security officials for the torch relay on April 26 in the city of Nagano, site of the 1998 Winter Olympics.

Nagano, which originally planned for 1,200 security personnel to guard the torch, last month boosted its security budget for the relay by one-third to six million yen (S$80,000).

About 80 people, including Athens Olympics double breaststroke champion Kosuke Kitajima and women's wrestling gold medallist Saori Yoshida, are scheduled to take part in the 18.5km relay. - AFP