Chinese military carries out Games-related drills

BEIJING, June 29 (Reuters) China's military staged its first drill today to test its readiness to respond to potential terrorist attacks during next year's Olympic Games, state media reported.

The exercise involved the army, navy and air force in sites stretching from Beijing and nearby Tianjin to the provinces of Hebei, Inner Mongolia and Shandong, the official Xinhua news agency said.

In one exercise, People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers simulated the thwarted hijacking of a merchant ship near the sailing venue for the Games, to be located in the eastern city of Qingdao, in Shandong.

In another, a commercial flight en route to an Olympic host city was ''hijacked'' by a group of ''terrorists''. The air force forced the plane to land and then an emergency response unit on the ground took control, Xinhua said.

Another team removed a simulated bomb planted by terrorists from a stadium, Xinhua said. It said the drill also dealt with a potential biochemical attack.

By relying on its own security forces, China believes it can deliver a secure games for a fraction of the 1.8 billion dollars that Athens paid in 2004.

Earlier this month, anti-terrorist police carried out a simulated mass hostage rescue in Beijing.

REUTERS RS KP2150