Foreign minister says air quality will suit athletes just fine

Most athletes taking part in this year's Olympic Games in Beijing will be "satisfied" with the city's air quality, China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said.

Yang, speaking to reporters today in Beijing, also pledged that conditions in China's capital will improve before the August games. His comments come a day after the agent for world record marathon holder Haile Gebrselassie said the athlete won't run the race in Beijing because pollution and heat may harm his health.

"The air quality will only become better and better in Beijing," Yang said. "We have full confidence."

The decision by Gebrselassie comes as Olympic teams prepare athletes for the worst, and after a $17 billion cleanup by Beijing's government for the Aug. 8-24 games. The U.S. intends to base its Olympic athletes in South Korea and the Australian team will be accompanied by an asthma doctor for the first time.

Beijing has spent $17 billion on more than 200 projects to improve its air quality, Zhang Lijun, deputy head of the State Environmental Protection Agency, said yesterday.

The program has helped increase the number of "blue sky days" in the city to 246 last year from 100 in 1998, Zhang said. Neighboring Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and Shandong provinces will shut some polluting plants and control emissions from coal-fired power stations during the games, he said.

Beijing's government in August 2007 barred 1.3 million of the city's 3 million vehicles from roads for four days and stepped up enforcement of a ban on automobiles with low emission standards from entering city limits.

Gebrselassie, who suffers from asthma, won't try to better his marathon record in Beijing, his agent Jos Hermens said yesterday. The runner still intends to go for a third gold medal in the 10,000 meters at the games, Hermens said.

International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge said in August 2007 he may postpone endurance events at the Olympics if pollution hampers athletes.