Japan will not allow Chinese security guards to protect the Olympic torch relay during its stop in the country later this month.

'We should not violate the principle that the Japanese police will firmly maintain security,' Shinya Izumi, head of Japan's National Public Safety Commission told reporters Friday.

The Olympic torch relay will arrive in Nagano, host city for the 1998 Winter Olympics, April 26.

The Chinese guards, who wore blue tracksuits and are members of special police units, protected the torchbearer in London and Paris.

'We do not know what position the people who escorted the relay are in,' said Izumi. 'If they are for the consideration of security, it is our role.'