Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony Nears

The Chinese capital, Beijing, is preparing to open the 2008 Olympic Games with a lavish ceremony. The event will involve about 10,000 performers, and will be watched on TV by an estimated four billion people. The lead-up to the Games has been overshadowed by issues such as China's human rights record, internet access, and air pollution in Beijing.

US President George W Bush expressed "deep concerns" over human rights before flying to Beijing. Mr Bush, who was in Thailand on the eve of the opening ceremony, voiced "firm opposition" to China's detention of dissidents - while stressing that he wanted the focus during the Games to be on sport. China rejected the US president's criticisms as "interference" in its internal affairs, and insisted it "put its people first". Meanwhile, 40 Olympian athletes wrote to President Hu Jintao expressing their concerns over Beijing's handling of anti-Chinese unrest in Tibet.

But after a succession of controversial issues in the build-up to the Games, the focus is now shifting to the opening ceremony. Having taken seven years of planning, and a record-breaking $40bn in costs, nothing has been left to chance in China's bid to show the world what it can do, our correspondent adds. An estimated global audience of four billion people will watch the opening ceremony. It will be staged at Beijing's national stadium - known as the Bird's Nest because of its steel latticed construction - and some 10,000 performers will take part.

Jacques Rogge, the head of the International Olympic Committee, who has repeatedly defended the decision to let China host the Olympics, said he hoped the Games would help the world to understand China, and China to understand the world. Mr Rogge also praised China's "extraordinary" efforts to cut pollution ahead of the Games, saying there was no danger to athletes' health. A day before the Games, a BBC reading suggested Beijing's air quality was far below World Health Organization (WHO) standards.

It put levels of particulate matter (PM10) at 191 micrograms per cubic metre. This exceeds the WHO target for developing countries of 150 micrograms/cubic metre. Mr Rogge said if the pollution was bad, events which lasted more than an hour could be shifted or postponed.There were celebrations on Thursday as the Olympic torch made its final stops on a journey that has seen it pass through six continents in six months.

Patriotic crowds lining a mist-shrouded Great Wall cheered as the torch - which has been a magnet for protesters critical of China's rights record on its six-continent tour - passed by. Human-rights group have condemned curbs on journalists covering the Games. In a statement issued on Friday, the New York-based group Human Rights Watch said: "As the 2008 Olympic Games open in Beijing, foreign journalists in China face a host of severe restrictions, ranging from harassment to a censored internet."