"Without security guarantees, there cannot be a successful Olympic Games, and without security guarantees the national image will be lost," President Hu Jintao was quoted as saying in the official newspaper of China's anti-riot forces on Tuesday.

The People's Armed Police News said a 'political mobilisation order' had gone out to the People's Armed Police troops telling them to prepare for an arduous time ensuring order and control before and during the Games in August.

"The drums of war are sounding, a decisive battle is at hand. For the sake of the Chinese nation's image and for the honour of the People's Armed Police, let us never forget our duty," it said.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) official Kevan Gosper said the Chinese were taking security very seriously and that preparations had been 'excellent'.

The official warnings come in the wake of anti-Chinese riots and protests in Tibet and nearby western provinces in March, and after international rights groups vowed protests at the Games to highlight their complaints about China's policies on human rights and media controls, Sudan's Darfur region, and Tibet.

China has also said it has foiled terrorist acts by Uighurs seeking an independent homeland for their largely Muslim people in the western region of Xinjiang.

But the World Uyghur Congress is urging a boycott of the Olympics opening ceremony to mark what it describes as oppression, said Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the German-based organisation.

"We agree that attention to Tibet is appropriate, but don't forget us Uighurs, otherwise before the Olympics, China could crack down harder," Raxit said by phone.

Security spending for major sporting events has soared since the Sept. 11 attack on the United States, but China has said that by using its own personnel and technology it can hold a safe Olympics for a fraction of the $1.8 billion spent on the 2004 Athens Games.

Saturation security at the torch-lighting ceremony kept ordinary citizens well away from the capital's Tiananmen Square on Monday and underscored China's fears of any unrest or protest sullying the Games, on which the government has spent billions in a show of national prosperity and confidence.

SHAME

"I want to emphasize that if anyone wants to use this grand sporting occasion for the whole world as their own political platform they have come to the wrong place and will bring shame upon themselves," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a news conference.

"If there is any interference or sabotage to the relay of the Olympic torch, it will be an open provocation to the charter and spirit of the Olympics."

The IOC has come under increasing pressure this year to use its influence with China on human rights, pressure that has increased after the unrest in Tibet.

Human Rights Watch fired another barrage on Tuesday, accusing the IOC of operating in a moral void, undermining human rights in China and flouting the spirit and letter of the Olympic Charter.

"Look, we're not an activist group, we're not a government," Gosper, chairman of the IOC press commission, said on the sidelines of the final inspection of preparations for the Aug 8-24 Games.

"We can talk quietly behind the scenes but it's really up to governments to deal with matters of human rights and the NGOs concerned. Our job is to deliver a great Olympic Games for the athletes of the world and we must keep our focus on that."

TORCH CONCERNS

The Olympic flame, which arrived in the Kazakh capital of Almaty on Tuesday, looks like becoming a focus for anti-Chinese protests as it makes its way around the world over the next 129 days.

"We are concerned that various groups that have a grievance or a cause will climb on the back of the Olympic torch relay," said Gosper. "We hope that if they are going to demonstrate, they'll do it with respect for the Olympic torch."

The IOC was also insisting, he said, that the Internet be 'open' at Games time to allow media to report properly.

"There was some criticism that the Internet closed down during events relating to Tibet in previous weeks, but this is not Games time," he said.