Torch paraded in Vietnam

The relay started here at 18:30 (1130 GMT) with organisers anxious to avoid any disruption by pro-Tibet and other protesters after demonstrators dogged earlier legs of the global journey.

Hundreds of well-wishers, many waving Chinese flags, crowded the start line of the Olympic flame route near the downtown French colonial-era Opera House.

"We feel very proud," said Li Guan, a 26-year-old Chinese resident of the city formerly called Saigon, which has Vietnam's largest ethnic Chinese community. "This is one of the greatest moments of my life."

Flame went out

Sixty runners were taking the torch from the city centre along an undisclosed route of about 10 to 13km to the Military Zone 7 Competition Hall stadium near the airport, officials said.

In an early glitch, the Olympic flame went out after less than 200m, but was quickly re-ignited by Chinese officials before the female runner continued on the relay.

Security was tight along the route, after hundreds of police were deployed from early morning in both Ho Chi Minh City and the capital Hanoi to guard Beijing's diplomatic missions and prevent anti-Chinese rallies.

The US-based pro-democracy group Viet Tan said it had confirmed more than a dozen detentions by name in Hanoi, while several activists and bloggers claimed scores more had been taken into custody there in the morning.

Police would not confirm any detentions, but an AFP reporter witnessed one incident at a Hanoi market when two protesters were taken away after unfurling a banner showing the five Olympic rings rendered as handcuffs.

While pro-Tibet rallies have dogged the relay in cities including London, Paris and Canberra, Vietnam's mostly nationalist activists are driven mainly by their country's long-simmering territorial dispute with its neighbour.

A non-political issuePolice last week detained an activist-blogger, accusing him of tax evasion, and also expelled a Vietnamese-American chemical engineer caught with T-shirts bearing slogans such as "A Gold Medal for Oppression."

The banned People's Democratic Party said university students here had also been detained for printing T-shirts that read, "Protest the torch relay" and "China invaded Vietnam's Spratly and Paracel Islands."

"We're strongly against these demonstrations," said another Chinese onlooker at the relay, 30-year-old Wang Yue from Beijing. "We think the Olympics is a non-political issue. We want to send our message of peace to the world."

After Vietnam, the Olympic torch will be flown to Hong Kong and Macau, and from there into the Chinese mainland and the Himalayan region of Tibet.