India has taken extra security measures to guarantee the success of the Olympic torch relay , the country's Home Ministry said on Thursday.

Some 15,000 security guards were deployed along the relay route at noon and they will stay till the end of the torch run, which is expected to last six hours, the ministry said.

The torch will be carried along the Raji Path for about 3 km from the Rashtrapati Bhavan to the India Gate.

According to the ministry, traffic on all roads leading to Raj Path and surrounding area will be restricted or cordoned off from noon for the event and some 5,000 school children will be allowed to join the run apart from the torch bearers.

The Home Ministry also ordered that all buildings along the relay route be sealed off till 6 p.m. local time (1230 GMT)

However, the Indian Olympic Association seems not anxious about the Tibetans' plans for a parallel torch relay.

"Pro-Tibet independence activists can protest as long as it is peaceful and do not disrupt the actual relay," Suresh Kalmadi, president of Indian Olympic Association, said Wednesday.

Some 30 pro-Tibet independence activists gathered Thursday morning outside the Le Meridian hotel in New Delhi near Raj Path just a few minutes after the torch touched down on India soil at 1 a.m. (1930 GMT Wednesday).

The Tibetans gathered there began shouting anti-China slogans at around 3:30 a.m. (2200 GMT Wednesday) and tried to break the barricade on the road.

Some of them were detained by the security forces and the rest were chased away, eyewitnesses said.

(Xinhua News Agency April 17, 2008)