The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Wednesday ruled out giving up the torch relay in the wake of anti-China protests by Tibetans all over the world. IOC President Jacques Rogge said they were not planning to stop the relay of the torch, which arrived in San Francisco on Tuesday ahead of the August 8-24 Beijing Olympics.

“It’s a false rumour. There is no discussion underway on the matter and we do not envisage such a scenario,” he told France 3 television station while replying to a question. “We will of course analyse the route of the torch since the beginning, from Olimpia to Paris. That’s what we are doing and we will make regular evaluations,” he said, adding, “We are not in the dynamic of stopping,” the torch relay.

Rogge’s remarks came ahead of his hour-long meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, with whom he discussed preparations for the Beijing Olympics. “It was a good meeting where a range of games topics were discussed between both parties,” the IOC said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Olympic committees from across the world expressed confidence that China would strive to find through dialogue and understanding a “fair and reasonable solution” to the Tibet issue.

However, a declaration adopted at the end of the three-day meeting of the National Olympic Committees did not mention the word ‘Tibet’ but referred to it as “the internal conflict”.