SAINT PETERSBURG, April 4: The Olympic flame reached Saint Petersburg on Friday for the Russian leg of a world tour ahead of this summer’s Beijing games, city authorities said, as rights activists called for a boycott.

On Saturday from 0830 GMT, 80 people are to take turns carrying the torch along a 20-kilometre (12-mile) route ending at the Hermitage museum and former imperial palace by the River Neva.

They will light a ceremonial Olympic goblet at the conclusion of the event, part of a 19-country tour that has been dogged by controversy over Beijing’s treatment of its Tibet region.

Among those to run with the flame are Galina Zybina, an Olympic champion at the 1952 games in Helsinki, when the Soviet Union was led by Joseph Stalin.

Ahead of Saturday’s event, the city administration was keeping the flame’s whereabouts secret, despite the lack of any obvious threat of disruption.—AFP