By Benjamin Kang Lim

BEIJING, April 10 (Reuters) - China's ambassador to the United States condemned a purported attempt to disrupt the U.S. leg of the Beijing Olympic torch relay, saying such "disgusting" conduct was doomed to fail, state media said on Thursday.

The torch's only stop in North America turned into a game of hide-and-seek on Wednesday as the San Francisco route was abruptly changed by city officials, angering anti-China protesters and disappointing supporters.

Thousands of people converged along the scenic Embarcadero waterfront route in the city. But after the opening ceremony, the first runner, flanked by blue-clad Chinese security officials, carried the torch into a warehouse.

The torch eventually turned up miles away from the original planned route.

"A tiny group of people ignored the spirit of the Olympic charter and tried to disrupt and sabotage the Beijing Olympic Games," the official Xinhua news agency quoted Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong as saying. He did not elaborate on the purported plot.

The group also tried to "damage Sino-U.S. relations and tarnish China's image. This disgusting conduct is unpopular and doomed to fail," Zhou said without elaborating.

The torch was a magnet last week for chaotic demonstrations in London and Paris over China's human rights record and a recent government crackdown on monk-led protests in Tibet.

Groups unhappy about China's human rights record and its policies on Sudan's Darfur region have sought to pressure Beijing as it prepares to host the Olympics in August.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom told Reuters that the route had to be radically changed at the last minute or the event cancelled to ensure public safety.

"We assessed the situation and felt that we could not secure the torch and protect the protesters and supporters to the degree that we wished," Newsom said. "As a consequence, we engaged in subsequent contingency planning that we felt would keep people safe."

A planned closing ceremony on the waterfront was scrapped and the torch brought to San Francisco International Airport. The flame's next stop is on Friday in the Argentinian capital Buenos Aires.

"COWARDLY"

"It's cowardly. If they can't run the torch through the city, it means that no one is supporting the Games," Matt Helmenstine, 30, a California schoolteacher carrying a Tibetan flag, said.

San Francisco has a large Chinese-American population and many had waited proudly to see the torch relay.

Thousands of pro-China spectators gathered along the original planned route, many flying the five-star Chinese flag alongside U.S. and Olympic flags.

"In 5,000 years of Olympic history the Chinese can finally have one time hosting the Olympics. It means that China is becoming a world power," said Don Zheng, 41, a Chinese-American computer engineer who emigrated in 1988.

In Beijing, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told the International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge that the torch is a "shining symbol of peace, friendship and progress", the People's Daily, the voice of the Communist Party, reported.

Rogge said on Thursday the Olympics would rebound from the torch relay "crisis" and urged athletes not to lose faith.

A commentary in the overseas edition of the People's Daily condemned protesters disrupting the relay.

"To judge from the utterly crude behaviour of a few trouble-makers, they have nurtured no respect for others or respect for the democratic majority, and lack a basic respect for the law," said the front-page commentary.

Hours before the San Francisco relay, President George W. Bush urged China to open a dialogue with the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader who lives in exile in India.

China blames the Dalai Lama and his associates for orchestrating monk-led protests which later turned violent as part of a campaign for independence. The Dalai Lama denies the claims.

Bush and other Western leaders are facing a delicate balancing act as calls mount for them to boycott the Olympics opening ceremony.

The route for the torch relay on May 2 in Hong Kong, its first stop in China, will be cut short "to avoid embarrassing scenes", Hong Kong's South China Morning Post reported, quoting an unnamed government source. (Additional reporting by Duncan Martell, Robert Galbraith, Erin Siegal and Philipp Gollner in San Francisco, Richard Cowan in Washington, Guo Shipeng and Nick Mulvenney in Beijing and John Ruwitch in Hong Kong; Editing by Ken Wills and David Fogarty)

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