Bangkok - As the Olympic torch procession winds its way to China's neighbours this week and next, regional governments are preparing for the worst while hoping for the best that this controversial relay won't strain relations with Beijing.

The torch relay, which drew angry protests and clashes with pro-Tibet, anti-Beijing demonstrators in Paris, London and San Francisco, can expect tight security in South-East Asia and Australia.

In Bangkok, the Olympic torch and accompanying Chinese delegation will receive a red-carpet welcome on Friday presided over by Thai Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, before the actual run Saturday through the city's Chinatown.

"We will try our best to make the torch bearing as successful as possible," said Thai foreign ministry spokesman Tharit Charungrat. "But Thailand is an open society," he noted.

At least one regional human rights group, FORUM-ASIA, has promised to use the Bangkok leg of the torch relay to protest Beijing's insistence that the torch also pass through Tibet.

"The people's blood has been spilled in Tibet, and yet the government of China still insists on bringing the Olympic torch to this land that they have violated," said FORUM-ASIA statement.

In collaboration with the Free Tibet Network, the human rights group plans a "No Torch in Tibet" protest march to coincide with the torch relay through Bangkok on Saturday.

Although the government has not confirmed reports that Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej will attend the official opening ceremonies of the Olympics on August 8, authorities have made no secret of their full support for Beijing.

On a trip to Beijing Tuesday Thai Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama told his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi that the issue of Tibet was China's "internal affair" and that Thailand opposed linking it to the Beijing Olympics.

Malaysia and Indonesia, where the torch relay moves on April 21 and 22, respectively, have thus far avoided announcements on whether their leaders will attend the opening Olympics ceremony in Beijing.

But last month, Malaysia's Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that the government considers Tibet an inalienable part of China.

Indonesia, a country which has a recent history of anti-Chinese riots (the latest of which trashed Jakarta's Chinatown in 1998), has agreed to significantly shorten its leg of the Olympic torch run following a request by Beijing over security concerns.

Police have agreed to deploy 1,500 officers along the shortened route to assure no untoward incidents arise.

Even in Australia, where the torch travels to Canberra on April 24, the procession has turned into a flaming issue.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is the only Mandarin-speaking leader in the Western world and a Sinophile since majoring in Chinese studies at Canberra's Australian National University.

And on a more pragmatic level, China this year supplanted Japan as Australia's biggest trade partner.

The relay is expected to attract up to 10,000 China supporters, vastly outnumbering pro-Tibet protestors and those championing the cause of the spiritualist movement Falungong that Beijing has driven underground.

Police have been given emergency powers to head off clashes between pro-China and anti-China demonstrators, but the government has put its foot down on allowing Chinese torch "escorts," blamed for some of the violence in London, Paris and San Francisco, from joining in any potential frays.

China's Olympic torch escorts risk arrest if they clash with pro-Tibet protestors at the relay in Canberra next week, Australian officials have warned.

Seoul, where the torch arrives on April 27, has so far refrained from making direct comments on the recent anti-Chinese demonstrations in Tibet or Beijing's crackdown on protestors.

South Korea's Prime Minister Han Seung Soo Monday declined to say who the South Korean government plans to send to the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, but he indicated that his government would avoid any measures that would strain the relations to Beijing.

"China is now Korea's number one trading partner, so we treasure this relationship and we would like to maintain this relationship," Han told reporters in Seoul.

On April 28, the Olympic torch is scheduled to arrive in North Korea's capital Pyongyang, where the country's state-controlled media last Saturday denounced recent anti-China protests in some countries that have disrupted the global tour of the Olympic flame.

In Vietnam, a communist country that was at war with China in 1979, it is less certain what the reception of the torch procession will be when it arrives in Hanoi on April 29.

"I think the protests are great. I will try my best to join," said Le Quoc Quan, a democracy activist who helped organize protests in December in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City against Chinese claims to the Spratly Islands, an archipelago also claimed by Vietnam.

But Quan said he doubted that many other Vietnamese were aware of the protests or the events in Tibet, which have been studiously ignored by the local, state-controlled media. (dpa)