Olympic Chief Vows Free Speech Defense

Rogge said he would convey to Chinese authorities the concerns of journalists worried that they would not be able to cover the torch relay during its scheduled segments in Tibet in May and June. Chinese officials have defended limitations on journalists in part as necessary to ensure their personal safety.

The Public Security Bureau said Thursday that it had broken up two terrorist cells made up of ethnic Uighur separatists. Chinese officials said the separatists had been trained abroad and were operating under orders from the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement, which has been classified as a terrorist organization by the United Nations as well as the Chinese and U.S. governments.

The Uighurs, a Muslim ethnic group numbering about 16 million, have long chafed under the Han Chinese-dominated government in Beijing.

The alleged plotting "clearly shows that today the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement's separatist forces group within Chinese borders is planning to carry out criminal terrorist activities with a goal of damaging the 2008 Beijing Olympics," a statement from the Chinese government's Public Security Bureau said.

Chinese security officials regularly say they have discovered underground separatist plots. But the details offered Thursday of explosive vests, poison and kidnapping plans against foreigners -- including, they said, foreign journalists -- were unusual. If confirmed, the discovery of the vests might indicate plans for suicide bombings, a tactic that so far the group is not known to have used in China.

The Tibetan government, meanwhile, has canceled plans to reopen the region to tourists May 1. Wu Yuqun at the China Tibet Tourist Agency in Lhasa said she received an oral notice this week that tourism was on hold until further notice.

Correspondent Edward Cody contributed to this report.