Beijing 2008 organisers have scrapped plans for an international Paralympics torch relay, following protests that disrupted the global journey of the Olympic Games torch.

The Beijing Olympic website announced the decision was prompted by the devastation caused by the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan province in China's southwest and the quake's impact on overall torch relay plans.

However, the move comes after a Chinese crackdown on anti-China protests in Tibet in March sparked global demonstrations that saw the Olympic torch's overseas relay in April repeatedly disrupted.

"Due to the devastating May 12 earthquake that struck China, [organisers] decided to modify arrangements for the Paralympic torch relay under the principle of 'safe, simple and effective,'" the announcement said.

The Paralympics are scheduled for September 6 to 17, just after the August 8 to 24 Beijing Olympics. The Paralympic torch relay was to be held just prior to their start.

They were to have been the first Paralympics to feature an international torch relay, which was to pass through Vancouver, London, and the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Domestic relay shortened

The changes to the torch relay sees the cancellation of those legs, as well as a visit to the southern Chinese territory of Hong Kong.

The Olympic torch encountered heated protests during its stop in London in April, following similar scenes earlier in Paris.

Hong Kong officials later barred activists from the territory to ensure a mostly trouble-free relay there in May.

Four stops on a planned 16-leg domestic torch relay will also be scrapped, it said.

They include the city of Chengdu, capital of quake-hit Sichuan, the nearby metropolis of Chongqing, the northern city of Tianjin, and Urumqi, capital of the far-western Xinjiang region, where millions of Muslims resent Chinese rule.

China threw a security lockdown over Urumqi last week during the Olympic torch relay there.