ANCIENT OLYMPIA, GREECE - RAIN and the possibility of protests over China's crackdown in Tibet threatened to dampen the festivities for lighting the Olympic flame for the Beijing Games on Monday.

A forecast for rain in Olympia, southwestern Greece, where the ancient Olympics were born in 776 BC, has forced organisers to bring the flame lighting ceremony forward by one hour to 11:00am (7pm Singapore time).

Even in case the skies open up the ceremony will go ahead, taking place indoors at the site's archaeological museum.

Thousands of people are expected to attend Monday's ceremony, including 2,500 accredited journalists and dignitaries, International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge, Beijing Olympic organising committee chairman Liu Qi, and the president and prime minister of Greece.

But concern over protests in Olympia against the 57-year occupation of Tibet by China, and the crackdown in the Himalayan region by Chinese forces, has forced Greece to put into place unprecedented security for this year's ceremony.

Hotels in Olympia are opening their guest lists to police inspection, officers are patrolling the hills around the ancient stadium where the ritual is held and there are plans to prevent spectators from lining the relay route.

Activists have warned the lighting of the flame will trigger a wave of protests against Chinese authorities over Tibet and other issues.

Different activist groups have drawn up plans with the goal of galvanising opposition to China's record on Tibet, Darfur, human rights, religious freedom and other issues in the run-up to the August Beijing Games.

The spiritual group Falungong, for example, is running its own torch relay to highlight the plight of its followers in China, who it says are subject to brutal persecution.

Dream for Darfur, an organisation set up to pressure China into helping end the bloodshed in the western Sudanese region, is planning protests along the torch relay route.

A number of Chinese athletes are scheduled to run the early relay leg out of Olympia, including Chinese swimmer Luo Xuejuan, a gold medallist in the 2004 Olympics, who will be the second relay runner.

The flame will be handed over to the Chinese Olympic Committee on March 30 in another ceremony at the all-marble Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, where the first modern Olympics were held in 1896. -- AFP