China ready for top-level Games

Beijing - Olympics officials insist that the world's best athletes will get a top-level Games in Beijing in August, despite controversy currently swirling around the event.

The Beijing Olympic organising committee, working on preparations for the Games for the past seven years, has earned unstinting praise from the Swiss-based International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Despite recent storm clouds gathering over the torch relay, Beijing is still on course to deliver a top-notch Olympics, according to senior IOC and organising committee officials.

"There is every reason to believe that a gold medal performance is in their grasp and that the world will marvel at superb Olympic and Paralympic Games," Hein Verbruggen, a senior IOC member, said during a visit to Beijing earlier in April.

Athletes and officials visiting Beijing to take part in some of the 42 test events over the past year have expressed admiration for the new stadiums that dot the Chinese capital, notably the "Water Cube" swimming venue and the main stadium known as the "Bird's Nest."

International tensions over Beijing's crackdown on unrest in Tibet and its policies on other issues including Darfur, human rights and religious freedom, will not detract from the organisation of the Games or diminish the event as a sporting festival for athletes, said IOC president Jacques Rogge.

"Here and there are small details to be fine-tuned, but I am saying that the level of preparedness ... is really excellent and we are very happy about the proceedings," he said in Beijing this month.

"I have no crystal ball, but I am optimistic that the Games will be a great success."

Rogge said that talk of an opening ceremony boycott among some politicians meant little to the 10 500 athletes who will compete in the Games.

All 205 countries and territories registered to attend the Olympics intended to do so and had rejected any kind of boycott, he added.

Other senior Olympic officials have said the current woes plaguing the Beijing Games would blow over during the 100-day countdown.

"We are very confident that we will be able to stage a high-level Games," said Beijing Olympic organising committee spokesperson Sun Weide.