The torch which will open the 2007 Pan American Games arrived in Brazil on Tuesday, and it will be carried by about 3,000 runners in relay up to Rio de Janeiro, where the event will be held.

The Pan Am Torch was lit in Mexico on Monday. On Tuesday, the committee bringing the Torch, comprised of Rio's Mayor Cesar Maia and the President of the Organizing Committee of the Pan Am Games (CO-Rio), Carlos Arthur Nuzman, was welcomed at the Porto Seguro airport by members of the Pataxo tribe, one of the oldest indigenous communities in the country.

Then, it was taken to Santa Cruz Cabralia, in the state of Bahia, the exact spot in the Brazilian coast where the Portuguese "discovered" the land which would later be called Brazil.

The welcoming ceremony relied on the participation of 300 students of public schools and of local popular singer Margareth Menezes, who sang the national anthem. After that, the relay tour started with the first Brazilian to have won a medal in the Games, former 400-meter hurdles champion Wilson Gomes Carneiro.

Volleyball champion Giovane Gavio, winner of two Olympic gold medals, took over the Torch after Carneiro carried it for 400 meters.

Several other sports stars will take part in the tour, which will include Brazil's 26 state capitals, the Federal District (Brasilia) and two indigenous villages, among other spots. The Torch is expected to arrive at the Maracana Stadium, in Rio, on July 13, when the Games opening ceremony will take place.