President Sarkozy today said 'sorry' to a Chinese Paralympian who became a symbol of nationalist outrage at home after she was mobbed by demonstrators on the Paris leg of the Olympic torch relay.

Jin Jing, a wheelchair-bound fencer, was pushed and shoved as she fended off pro-Tibet demonstrators trying to extinguish the Olympic torch during the chaotic relay through the French capital earlier this month.

Amid growing anti-French sentiment on the streets of China, she was hailed as a hero for her actions. Later, however, Chinese people rounded on her and angrily condemned her as a traitor, after she made comments supportive of the French people.

Christian Poncelet, the president of the French Senate, visited Jin in Shanghai and gave her the note from Mr Sarkozy, China’s Xinhua news agency said.

“I would like to express to you my deep feeling towards the way you were shoved in Paris on April 7 when you were holding the Olympic flame,” the agency quoted the note as saying.

“You showed an outstanding courage.”

However the letter threatens to add to the controversy surrounding the 27-year-old amputee, who was vilified at home after voicing her opposition to a movement to boycott French goods.

“Jin Jing, I’m disappointed by your attitude! ... How could you be so ignorant!” read one among thousands of furious entries on Chinese blogs.

Over the weekend, Chinese in several cities took to the streets to urge a boycott of the French supermarket chain Carrefour, which has been rumoured to support Tibetan independence. Despite an impressive police presence, shopping centres in the eastern cities of Qingdao and Hefei and central China’s Wuhan were forced to close down amid protests on Saturday, while in Beijing, riot police sealed off the area around the French embassy in preparation for demonstrators, who in the end numbered just a handful.

In the southern city of Kunming, a crowd bombarded a man with empty water bottles after he said that boycotting Carrefour was irrational, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported. In Qingdao, the family home of a Chinese student who attended a campus protest in support of Tibet was vandalised with messages urging people to "kill the traitors."

For the fourth straight day, the state-run People’s Daily newspaper ran an editorial today urging Chinese to be “rational” in showing their “patriotism." All major dailies also ran a denial by Carrefour of its alleged support for Tibetan independence.

Suggestions by Mr Sarkozy that he might boycott the August 8 opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics unless China opens dialogue with the Dalai Lama have further fuelled nationalist anger.

The French president's letter said he understood that attack on the torch had hurt the feelings of the Chinese people and said such behaviour was“intolerable”.

“I was shocked to see what happened during the torch relay,” Mr Poncelet said in Shanghai, quoting from the letter.

“I want to assure you that the incidents that were brought about by a few people on this sad day don’t reflect the feelings of my fellow countrymen for the Chinese people,” the note said.

But the torch relay is set to run into further difficulties as it continues its international journey amid criticism of a recent Chinese crackdown in Tibet.

Today the torch was paraded through Kuala Lumpur amid a massive security operation which saw over 1,000 police and security forces lining the 10 mile route. After protesters were warned of arrest if they tried to disrupt the procession, police detained a British woman and a Japanese family who waved Tibetan flags at the start of the Malaysian relay.

“A Japanese family and their son were waving a Tibetan flag when they were set upon by Beijing Olympic supporters in Independence Square,” W. Karthik, a senior police official in charge of security, said.

An AFP reporter who witnessed the incident said the Chinese mob attacked the adults and child with inflated plastic batons, shouting: “Taiwan and Tibet belong to China."

Both the famiy and the British woman were detained for questioning and documentation of their travel details, security officials said.

The torch will now proceed to Jakarta and Canberra before travelling to Japan, where the relay has already been the focus of considerable contention.

Today, it was reported that the Japanese leg of the relay will now begin from a vacant patch of land in Nagano City after the original host, a historic Buddhist temple, pulled out over security concerns and complaints from worshippers. After distancing itself from the event last week, the Zenkoji Temple was targeted by vandals who spray-painted white circles onto wooden columns and a door, a temple official said.

The three corporate sponsors for Saturday's relay have also decided against sending vehicles to take part in the event, citing security concerns.

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