Completion of 'Bird's Nest' stadium delayed to 2008

BEIJING, Mar 28 (Reuters) The centrepiece of the 2008 Olympics, the ''Bird's Nest'' national stadium, will not be completed by the end of this year as had originally been hoped, an official said today.

Officials have frequently said over the last year -- most recently in January -- that they were confident they would complete the 3.13 billion yuan (4.9 million) 90-000-seater stadium by the end of 2007.

Wu Jingjuan, spokesman for the 2008 Construction Office, said that while the other 30 venues in Beijing would be handed over before the start of 2008, the national stadium would not be ready until six months before the opening ceremony.

''According to our schedule, all the venues for Games will be completed by the end of this year, except the national stadium,'' he told a news conference.

''The national stadium will be handed over in March 2008 in time for the first test event scheduled in April.'' Wu said there had been some technical problems to overcome in building the stadium and the neighbouring 1.2 billion yuan ''Water Cube'' aquatics centre, although he did not connect them with, or even acknowledge, the delay.

''The difficulties of constructing the national stadium and aquatic centre are two of the highest even in world architectural history,'' he said.

Beijing has avoided the construction delays that beset 2004 hosts Athens and were even advised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to slow down at one stage.

One venue that will be ready in time is the Shunyi Olympic Water Park, located an hour to the northeast of the city, which will host the rowing and canoeing at next August's Games.

The venue buildings have already been completed and sit alongside the 3,000-metre rowing lake, which will host the world junior championships starting on Aug. 8 -- the first official Olympic test event in Beijing this year.

Part of the now peaceful 1.62 square kilometre site sits on what was once the Maxingzhuang village, where in 2005 some of the 2,300 inhabitants protested at being evicted without compensation or resettlement.

BEIJING DROUGHT The deputy director of the venue, Zhang Xiangdong, said the residents had been compensated, although some of the money had gone to ''collective use .... for public facilities and farmers' pensions'', in line with ''state policy''.

''The venue constructions in our Shunyi district have always been supported by our residents,'' he told reporters at the site.

''The farmers care about it and they hope it can improve their living standards.'' The 1.7 million cubic metres of water filling the lake are also not problematic, Zhang said, despite Beijing being in the grip of a long-term drought.

Officials in neighbouring Hebei province said on Wednesday they had agreed to supplement Beijing's water supplies during the Games assuming the project to bring water north from the Yangtze and Yellow rivers is not finished in time.

REUTERS SAM RN1631