Greek actress Maria Nafpliotou lights the Olympic flame during the handover ceremony on Sunday. (Reuters)

Beijing, March 30 (AP): Beijing has tightened security ahead of the Olympic torch’s arrival after demonstrations by protesters, including Indians, during its passage through Greece.

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

Protesters at the marble Panathenian Stadium chanted “Save Tibet” and unfurled a banner that read “Stop Genocide in Tibet”.

Twenty-one demonstrators were detained — seven Indians, a Nepalese and 13 Greeks — and were all to be released without charge, police said.

The torch was expected to arrive in Beijing on Monday aboard an Air China flight, allowing the government a brief respite before the relay sets off on a problematic, month-long world tour.

Authorities have given few details about a torch ceremony tomorrow at the Tiananmen Square, the heart of China’s capital.

Journalists covering the event in China were told to collect their accreditation in person a day early, rather than at tomorrow’s ceremony to welcome the torch at the square. There was an increased security presence in the square today, with its northern portion cordoned off.

The flame will be taken by an unidentified Chinese torchbearer, state media said. The Beijing Youth Daily said it could be famed Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang, although this had not been confirmed.

The flame goes Tuesday to Almaty, Kazakhstan, at the start of the 20-country, 137,000-km global journey with protests expected in several major cities.

The grandiose relay is the longest in Olympic history and has the most torchbearers — a sign of the vast attention lavished on the Games by China’s government, which hopes to use it to showcase its rising economic and political power.

Instead, it has focused attention on the unrest in Tibet — the worst in two decades.