Former leader of the Liberal Party of Australia Shane Stone has warned that "boycotts and disrupting the Olympic torch relay is counterproductive."

Days ahead of the Beijing Olympic torch relay in Canberra, Australia, on April 24, Shane issued a statement on Wednesday, warning against "misinformation and fiction" that "has the potential to seriously derail the bilateral relationship between Australia and China."

"China won the right to host the Olympics with the very support of Australia," he said, praising China's progress in modern history.

"China has made considerable progress in modernizing the nation against a back drop of centuries of Imperial Rule, grinding poverty, invasion, civil war, natural disaster and a population that has well and truly eclipsed a billion people," Shane added.

"The biggest mistake we can make as onlookers and observers is to view China through the prism of a western democracy," he noted.

The Olympic flame arrived in Argentina on Thursday after the torch relay encountered some disruptions in London, Paris and San Francisco.

On Friday, the chairman of the Australian Capital Territory torch relay task force, Ted Quinlan, expressed confidence that the Beijing Olympic torch relay in Canberra will run its full 20 km course and not be affected.

(Xinhua News Agency April 12, 2008)