Olympic torch finally heads for China's Beijing

Following its troubled international tour, which became a lightning rod for pro-Tibet protesters, the torch was due in the capital on Tuesday night from the quake-hit zone of Sichuan.

In a tradition introduced before the 1936 Berlin Olympics, the flame is lit from the sun's rays in ancient Olympia, Greece, then carried across the globe by thousands of runners.

"This is the pride of the Chinese people," worker Xu Min said amid wildly cheering crowds watching the flame in Sichuan province's capital Chengdu before it left for Beijing.

The torch will travel past city landmarks before reaching the main Bird's Nest stadium for Friday's opening ceremony.

Music and singing floated into the air overnight from the gleaming, steel-latticed venue as thousands prepared for that extravaganza timed for eight o'clock on the eighth day of the eighth month: the number symbolizes fortune in China.

With thousands of athletes now in China and limbering up for the Aug. 8-24 event, local and Olympic authorities hoped global attention would finally turn to sport after a buildup dominated by debate over Beijing's policies at home and abroad.

Desperate to show its modern face to the world but under pressure over human rights, the host nation was shaken on Monday when suspected Muslim separatists killed 16 police in the west.

State media said a taxi-driver and a vegetable-seller had been detained over the bomb attack in the far western region of Xinjiang.

The Communist government and Olympics chiefs shrugged off the attack and assured the 10,500 athletes from 205 countries that security was guaranteed and promising an inspiring Games.

People's Liberation Army troops, nevertheless, stepped up protection of Olympic facilities as a result of the bombing.

And the Silk Road city of Kashgar where the attack took place, near China's western border, was flooded by riot police.

"This is an individual incident," Chinese tourism official Du Jiang said. "We are basically a safe travel destination."

POLLUTION WORRIES
The Olympics will cost Beijing about $40 billion, by far the most expensive in history. Unlike past debt-ridden hosts such as Montreal in 1976 and Athens in 2005, that sum is small change for China's roaring economy.

"We are about to experience a magnificent Olympic Games," International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge said of a Games attracting as much global attention for its host nation as for its imminent sporting battles.

"The changes that are occurring in China are a microcosm of the changes in the rest of the world," he added.

Australia's Olympic Committee gave a thumbs-up to China on Tuesday for its meticulous security preparations, including a 100,000-strong force on standby in Beijing.

"We've been advising the athletes ... that this incident took place 4,000 km (2,500 miles) away," said its vice-president Peter Montgomery. "Security's extremely tight around the (Olympics) village and at all levels ... I've been to a quite a few Games and the only one I've been to that is comparable is Moscow."

In the most eagerly-awaited competition, the men's 100 meters for the title of Fastest Man on Earth, world champion Tyson Gay said he would be ready despite a hamstring muscle strain in July.

Authorities have spent a fortune -- around $18 billion -- on cleaning up Beijing. Drastic measures have included taking nearly 2 million cars off the street and shutting factories.

But a pollution-fuelled haze continued to clog the skies on Tuesday. That ruined views of a skyline boasting numerous futuristic new Olympic venues and gleaming towers giving testimony to China's new global economic clout.

Many athletes have delayed arrival to the last minute due to the bad air. Beijing's cloying summer heat also worries some.

"The humidity's quite fun. It's like rowing through a steam bath," Britain's Olivia Whitlam said at the rowing lake.

Two-time Olympic discus champion Virgilijus Alekna had a different type of contamination on his mind though. At final training in Lithuania, he found the stadium covered in dog poo.

"I have no idea how I can train in such conditions ... who would clean the discus after every throw?" the professional bodyguard complained to a Lithuanian daily.

On a happier note, Chinese hotels and restaurants were pulling out the stops to welcome visitors, even though visa problems and bad publicity have kept numbers lower than expected.

In Beijing's Quanjude restaurant, whose former customers include Fidel Castro and George Bush Sr., staff extolled the virtues of China's famed national dish, Peking Duck, in song.

"It connects to the world and makes friends globally," they sang of the duck, which obviously shares the Olympic ideals.

En route to Asia, Bush Jnr gave a mixed assessment of a nation many expect to rival his own for global hegemony this century. The U.S. president praised China's efforts to curb the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran, but it said it was "really hard to tell" whether human rights had improved of late.