Hong Kong police detained around 20 people following minor scuffles along the route of the Olympic torch relay in the southern Chinese city on Friday, witnesses said.

China supporters and pro-democracy activists pushed and shoved each other on Nathan Road, one of the city's main thoroughfares, as the relay set off, AFP reporters said.

Friday's leg of the worldwide relay is the last likely chance for major protests before the torch, which has been dogged by demonstrators on its journey around the world, heads to mainland China on Saturday.

But there has been a growing backlash from China supporters angered by the international criticism of Beijing's crackdown on Tibet.

In one incident on Friday, police carted away about a dozen pro-democracy activists after they had scuffled with around 100 supporters of China, who cheered and clapped as the protesters were taken away.

"They are supporting a guy who has betrayed our country," said 24-year-old Yvette Dhang, referring to Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

Dhang she had travelled from the Chinese city of Shanghai to "support" the relay, which drew massive protests at some earlier stops, notably London and Paris.

A police spokeswoman said officers had moved in to maintain public order.

"They were... taken to Yau Ma Tei police station to prevent any further disruption to public order," the spokeswoman said, before they were released.

A separate police statement said no arrests had been made.

Hong Kong resident Wang Kuei Sheng said the protesters taken away by police were "troublemakers" and that the Olympics -- and the torch relay in Hong Kong -- were "the happiest moment for Chinese people."

The protesters had held up placards calling on China to release dissidents and allow the full suffrage in Hong Kong that was promised when colonial power Britain handed the territory back to China in 1997.

In a separate incident, about 10 pro-Tibet protesters were loaded into a police van after being heckled by China supporters, who cheered when they were pushed into the vehicle.

"This is the first Chinese city that the torch is coming to," protester Christina Chan told AFP before police took her away.

"We wanted to show that Chinese people can have rational discussions about Tibet."

Demonstrations around the world were sparked by a crackdown in Tibet that began on March 14, after protests against China's rule of the Himalayan region erupted into violence.

Tibet's government-in-exile says more than 200 people were killed in the Chinese response, which included sealing off the region to foreign reporters and tourists, making accounts of bloodshed impossible to verify.

China said 20 people had been killed by Tibetan "rioters" until Monday, when state media for the first time said police shot dead a Tibetan pro-independence "insurgent."

 PHOTO CAPTION:

The Olympic torch (centre) is paraded in Hong Kong

AFP