The Beijing 2008 Olympic torch was lit on Monday in ancient Olympia, marking the start of a five-month domestic and international torch relay that will end on August 8 with the Games' opening ceremony.

On an overcast day inside the archaeological site, that played host to the Olympics in ancient Greece, the actress Maria Nafpliotou playing the high priestess used a break in the clouds to light the torch in front of the Temple of Hera.

Greek athlete Alexandros Nikolaidis, an Athens 2004 Games taekwondo silver medallist, will be the first torchbearer starting a six-day Greek relay before the flame is handed over to the Chinese on March 30.

Human rights demonstrators tried to disrupt the speech of the Beijing Games organising chief Liu Qi at the torch-lighting ceremony inside the ancient stadium.

One of them, carrying a black banner with five interlocked handcuffs in the pattern of the Olympics rings, approached the BOCOG chief within a few metres but was quickly led away by police before unfolding it.

Liu continued his speech almost uninterrupted.

Free speech group Reporters Without Borders said they had staged the event to protest against human rights violations in China.

"If the Olympic flame is sacrificed, human rights are even more so," the group said in a statement on the French version of its website (www.rsf.org/).

"We cannot let the Chinese government seize the Olympic flame, a symbol of peace, without condemning the dramatic human rights in the country."    

About two dozen protesters tried to push their way into the ancient site where the ceremony was taking place but were held back by police after minor scuffles.

Police said they had detained three people so far, including the deputy director of the Students for a Free Tibet who had pledged to stage a protest against China's occupation of Tibet, and a Greek photographer who had been with him since Sunday.

Tenzin Dorjee was detained by plain-clothes officers with the photographer in Olympia, away from the site of the ceremony, and shouted "Shame on China" as he was led away.

"I was just arrested by over 20 Greek undercover officers. I am now held at the police station," he told Reuters. The globally televised ceremony launches a five-month torch relay that culminates with the opening of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. -Reuters