Beijing still hopes for torch relay to Taiwan

Beijing, Apr 19: Beijing organisers still believe a solution is possible to the problem of taking the 2008 Beijing Olympic torch relay to the island of Taiwan, an official said today.

The governing party of Taiwan, a self-ruled island which China considers a rebel province, agreed yesterday they would not admit the Olympic torch if it entered or left the island via mainland China, Hong Kong or Macau.

That decision would seem to have scuppered a compromise by which the torch would leave Taiwan for Hong Kong, a special administrative region under Chinese control, which had been viewed as a solution that would satisfy both Beijing and Taipei.

''People who love the Olympics want to see the torch relay,'' said Jiang Xiaoyu, vice president of the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG).

''I'm convinced our Taiwan compatriots, and those of Hong Kong, Macau and mainland, are interested in seeing the torch relay. This our common will.

''With the help of the IOC guidelines, I'm sure we can work together to satisfy everybody's goals.'' The torch relay schedule must be approved by the International Olympic Committee (IOC)'s executive board, which meets in Beijing, and Jiang said it had been ''generally settled'' and would be announced by the end of April.

BEGGARED BELIEF

Jiang was speaking at the closing news conference of the eighth visit to Beijing of the IOC coordination commission, whose chairman said it beggared belief that anybody would turn down a chance to host the torch relay.

''We have as the IOC such an amount of requests from countries that don't ask for anything better than to be part of the torch relay that I have problems to imagine that a country does not want the torch relay,'' Hein Verbruggen said.

''And that goes for Taiwan too. I have problems believing that there is a country that would willingly refuse that to their population.'' Taiwan's ruling pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party said the decision to refuse the torch via any Chinese controlled territory was to give the impression that Taiwan was not a part of China.

An official with the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee in Taiwan agreed that passing the torch through Hong Kong or Macau would be ''a bit difficult''.

China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. Beijing has vowed to bring the democracy of 23 million people back under mainland rule, by force if necessary.

REUTERS