BEIJING, April 28 -- Beijing Olympics organizers yesterday accused Taiwan of a "perfidious betrayal of trust" for reneging on an agreement to host a stop on next year's torch relay.

The schedule for the 2008 Olympic flame's worldwide journey was disclosed on Thursday by Beijing organizers and included a stop in Taiwan before the relay moved to Hong Kong on the 137,000-kilometer route.

Taiwan Olympic officials called the link between Taipei and Hong Kong an "attempt to include the island in the domestic relay route" and rejected the plan.

Jiang Xiaoyu, vice president of the Beijing Olympics organizing committee, expressed surprise at Taiwan's rejection because its Olympic committee had already agreed to the route in writing, he said.

"The Chinese nation has a fine tradition of keeping promises," he told a news conference. "We do not agree with such perfidious betrayals of trust.

"We still hope the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee and its authorities ... will continue the consensus between the two parties and the route that has been approved by the International Olympic Committee."

Jiang said the Beijing committee had been discussing the relay with Taiwan sports officials since November and received a letter from them agreeing to the route on March 27.

Under the Beijing group's plan, the torch would have arrived in Taipei, capital of Taiwan Province, from Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam on May 1, 2008 kicking off the China leg of the relay. The relay will begin in Greece, go to Beijing and then wind across Asia, Europe, the Americas, Africa, Oceania before returning to Asia and China, where the torch will ignite the cauldron at the opening ceremony on August 8, 2008, in Beijing's 91,000-seat Olympic Stadium.

The journey will be the longest trip ever, last 130 days and involve 22,000 torch bearers. There are even plans to carry the flame to the top of Mt Everest, the worlds' highest peak.

Last week the Beijing committee received another letter from Taiwan's Olympic chief, Tsai Chen-Wei, indicating a problem.

"The current development of many issues is out of our sports community's control," Jiang said, quoting from the letter. "My authorities require that the torch must go into and pass out of Taipei through a third party."