Olympic torch relay to mark silence for quake victims

BEIJING (Reuters) - China will observe one minute's silence at the start of each day of the Olympic torch relay after Monday's earthquake in southwest China killed thousands, Games organizers said.

The one minute will start on Wednesday in Ruijin, in the eastern province of Jiangxi, with the celebrations scaled down for all future stops, the website of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) said.

"The Olympic torch relay will take safety as the first priority," it said without elaborating.

The Olympic flame has had a troubled tour overseas with protests about China's perceived heavy-handed treatment after riots in the western region of Tibet.

The torch will be paraded in the quake-hit province of Sichuan from June 15-18 as scheduled and the route would not be altered, said Li Zhanjun, director of the BOCOG media centre.

Charity donation boxes would be in place along the path of the flame each day, the notice said.

The Beijing Olympics begin on August 8.

(Written by Liu Zhen; Editing by Nick Macfie)

(Take a look at the Countdown to Beijing blog at blogs.reuters.com/china)