Muhammad Ali lights Olympic torch in Atlanta

Boxing legend Muhammad Ali lit the Olympic torch during a ceremony in Atlanta on Tuesday as the Olympic Flame arrived in the United States from Greece for the first time since 1996.

Ali, who lit the flame at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, passed the torch with hands shaking from Parkinson's disease to Olympic gold medal figure skater Peggy Fleming, who began the first leg of a 13,500-mile (21,700-km) relay destined for Salt Lake City, the host of the 2002 Winter Olympics.

The opening ceremonies of the Winter Games are on Feb. 8.

Atlanta was the starting point for the U.S. torch relay because it hosted the last Olympics in the United States.

"The Olympic spirit overcomes fear, hatred and misunderstanding," Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes told a cheering crowd during the ceremony at Centennial Olympic Park.

"It is my hope that the Olympic spirit will spread across our nation and our world," Barnes said.

The ceremony had special poignancy for Americans touched by the Sept. 11 airline attacks, as the relay's route has been changed to include Washington, New York and Pennsylvania in memory of the victims.

Among the torchbearers will be Lyzbeth Glick, the wife of Jeremy Glick, one of the passengers aboard the flight that crashed on Sept. 11 in Pennsylvania after passengers apparently struggled with hijackers.

Nearly 4,000 people were killed in that crash and the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Glick is scheduled to carry one of the torches, which are made of glass, silver and copper, on Dec. 23 in New York.

TORCH LEAVES ATLANTA

The torch left the Atlanta area on Tuesday afternoon after passing through the hands of former world heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield and Olympic champion speedskater Bonnie Blair. It was taken to Athens, Georgia, by truck and is scheduled to end the day by crossing into South Carolina.

The flame will be carried on foot, by plane, rail, ship, dog sled, horse-drawn sleigh and snowmobile through 46 states and 80 cities before arriving in Salt Lake City.

Ignited by the sun's rays in Olympia, Greece, where the first Olympics were staged nearly 3,000 years ago, the flame was used to ignite a caldron in Atlanta from which the torch was lit.

"The Olympics is really a time for coming together and after Sept. 11 I have never seen the people of the United States more united," said Dan O'Brien, a U.S. athlete who won a gold medal in the decathlon in Atlanta in 1996.

The Olympic Flame was first used for the 1936 Berlin Games and soon became a staple tradition for both the Summer and Winter Games. Greece, which will host the 2004 Summer Games, has said it wants to make its own torch relay a peace tool, touring conflict zones around the world.