President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev carried the Olympic flame as the first torchbearer, starting up a 20-kilometer relay on Wednesday through Almaty, the first stopover of 2008 Games torch relay outside China's mainland.

Nazarbayev presented a speech on the set-off ceremony before holding the flame to run the first leg in the Medeo ice skating rink at around 12:10 AM local time.

"Under the help of our neighbor and the president of China, Almaty becomes the first leg of the Olympic torch relay outside China's mainland. With all the eyes around the world looking on us, Kazakhstan, a country of multi-ethnicity presents its best wishes to the Beijing Olympic flame," said Nazarbayev.

"Kazakhstan is proud of this and many thanks to China. Beijing Olympic Games is set to unseal a new era of sports in the 21st century."

The fence around the rink was dressed up in "Beijing 2008". The stand was fully packed with spectators in uniform of five colors representing that of "five rings".