The Olympic torch relay was surrounded by the shouts of protesters, prompting organizers to skip the valley stretch near the town of Susa and instead head straight to the next stop.

A police car was kicked by demonstrators, who tried in vain to put out the flame by throwing a protest banner on it, Stefano Coscia, the media director for the torch relay, told The Associated Press by telephone.

"The police advised us not to go on" with the valley route, but instead head straight toward the stop scheduled for yesterday evening in the town of Bordonecchia, Coscia said.

The relay arrived at Bordonecchia in time for a ceremony that was attracting thousands of peaceful people, Coscia said, shouting over the din of music from the festivities.

In Turin, an International Olympic Committee spokeswoman, Giselle Davies, said the decision to change the relay route was made "primarily due to security reasons."

"It's always disappointing when a minority uses an issue in this way, but this a democratic country," she said. "From an IOC perspective, we don't feel a minority is spoiling things for the majority. You have to keep this in proportion. The protests have been the smaller bits of the whole."

For months, residents and environmentalists in Susa have been protesting against plans to build a high-speed rail link between Turin and Lyon, France. The activists had said they planned to protest against yesterday's passage of the flame in the valley ahead of the Games.

According to media reports earlier yesterday, Coca-Cola and Samsung, two sponsors of the Turin Winter Games, decided that their vehicles would not accompany the Olympic flame through the Susa Valley.

"I feel great bitterness and uncomfortableness for what happened in Susa Valley during the travel of the flame," Mario Pescante, the Italian government's supervisor for the Games, told the Italian news agency ANSA. "Tomorrow, I'll have to apologize to the IOC."

(Source: AP)