Clashes have broken out between pro-Tibet campaigners and pro-Chinese supporters during the Olympic torch relay in Canberra, with several campaigners arrested.

A handful of people, including one man who tried to run in front of the torch, were carried off by police as the relay wound its way around the national capital on Thursday morning.

Thousands of flag-waving Chinese supporters flooded into Canberra from interstate ahead of the event, vastly outnumbering pro-Tibet protesters trying to highlight human rights abuses by the Olympic host.

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One man was arrested in a confrontation between rival groups before the race got under way, and a Communist flag was set alight at Reconciliation Place.

When the torch run began, torchbearers were flanked by Australian police who at one stage repeatedly pushed aside blue-tracksuited Chinese attens running close to the flame.

Tension mounted as the flame approached parliament and at least two pro-Tibetan protesters were wrestled away as the flame approached.

Man wrestled to the ground

One was a woman who appeared to faint in the arms of police.

Police running with the torch also wrestled a protester to the ground and handcuffed him on the ramp leading to Parliament House.

There were more serious clashes on Anzac Parade, near the Australian War Memorial, before the flame arrived there.

Three protesters carrying Free Tibet signs jumped the barricades and ran down the centre of Anzac Parade, a road flanked with monuments to Australia's war dead.

About 50 pro-China demonstrators followed them and tried to cover the Tibetans and their signs with large red Chinese flags.

Pandemonium broke out as the two groups yelled at each other until police intervened and ordered everyone behind the barricades.

Flag-waving China supporters

Despite the protests and rivalry between groups of supporters, commentators said overall the torch relay had gone well, compared to in cities such as London and Paris, where violence erupted.

With huge crowds of flag-waving pro-China supporters following closely from behind barricades, the torchbearers were given a clear run, without security having to stay too close.

Throughout the run, jogging federal police officers gently shepherded the torchbearers while other police travelled nearby in vans, ready to move in if trouble erupted.

Earlier, ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope said he strongly believed people should be able to demonstrate peacefully.

"I uphold utterly the right of anyone to use the leg of today's relay as an opportunity to have their voice heard, to be allowed to assent, to speak freely as a mark of our democracy.

"We do not muzzle dissent just because it might embarrass us or embarrass our friends. We hope our friendship can bear a little plain speaking."
Source: SBS staff and agencies