The chairman of Japan's National Public Safety Commission said today Japan will not accept Chinese security guards when the city of Nagano hosts the torch relay on April 26.

"We should not violate the principle that Japanese police will maintain security," Shinya Izumi said at a press conference. "I do not accept the idea that they will run in Japan as they did in other countries."

The Chinese runners, who wear bright blue tracksuits, ran to protect the torch in London and Paris, where chaotic torch protests interrupted the relay. Beijing has said only that the unit's mission was to guard the flame.

Members of the unit were picked from special police units of the People's Armed Police, China's internal security force.

In Kenya, Nobel Peace laureate Wangari Maathai said today that she has pulled out of the torch relay's Tanzania leg.

"From the very beginning I thought the torch will be a symbol of unity, peace and harmony, but as it moved around the world it has become a symbol of disunity. Then I decided to pull out completely," Maathai, an environmentalist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, told The Associated Press today.