By Nick Mulvenney

BEIJING, March 31 (Reuters) - The Beijing Olympic flame was welcomed by cheering children in the Chinese capital amid tight security on Monday after attempts by pro-Tibet protesters in Athens to block its path.

Exiled Tibetans and human rights activists have targeted the Olympics since China poured security forces into Tibet and parts of western China to suppress anti-government protests.

The torch was escorted off a plane emblazoned with "Journey of Harmony" and passed to officials in a tightly choreographed display outside a gleaming new airport terminal where groups of children waved Chinese and Olympic flags.

The flame, encased in a lantern, will be officially welcomed at a ceremony at Tiananmen Square, the focus of democracy protests that were crushed in 1989, where police and plainclothes security men lined streets cordoned off with yellow tape.

The square was decked out in a red carpet, with rows of brightly dressed students, workers and other supporters waving pom-poms and singing the Olympic motto "One World One Dream" as they awaited the torch's arrival.

In Athens, protesters holding Tibet flags and shouting "Free Tibet" and "China out of Tibet" had failed to break through a police cordon to block the torch's passage.

The international leg of the 130-day relay starts when the flame heads for Kazakhstan on Tuesday. The flame returns to Beijing after travelling around all of China's provinces and regions on Aug. 6, two days before it is used to light the cauldron at the Olympic opening ceremony.

China blames the Dalai Lama for days of protest in Lhasa, that burst into a citywide riot on March 14, and other unrest throughout its ethnic Tibetan regions. It says he is seeking independence and wants to disrupt the Beijing Olympics.

China, which sent in troops to Tibet in 1950, voiced strong dissatisfaction with an EU meeting that called for an end to repression in Tibet and urged Beijing to hold a dialogue on cultural and religious rights for the region.

In a statement posted on the Foreign Ministry's Web site (www.fmprc.gov.cn) late on Sunday, spokeswoman Jiang Yu said Tibet was an internal affair of China.

"We strongly request the European Union and its member states make a clear distinction between right and wrong, clearly condemn the violent crimes of beating, smashing, looting and burning and avoid taking double standards," Jiang said.

(Take a look at the Countdown to Beijing blog at http://blogs.reuters.com/china)

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[OLY-LEN] for more stories about the Olympics (Writing by Lindsay Beck and Nick Macfie)

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