Doubts and construction delays have dogged the run-up to the Athens Olympics and, with less than one month before the start, the Greek capital has yet to hurry up to get everything ready.

If the Olympics opens tomorrow, they would certainly go on, though they might lack a bit in beauty and comfort.

Construction still clogs sidewalks, streets and sports venues throughout the city. Ringing the venues are mounds of red and gray dirt, which divide rough outlines of walkways.

"There are no major problems ... which will not be resolved in the remaining time," Denis Oswald, the International Olympic Committee's chief coordinator for the Athens Olympics, said after reviewing the city's progress in Games preparations.

It has been a desperate scramble these last few months to complete venues and the transport system by August 13, when the Games will return to the country of its birth. Athens won its bid to host the Games in 1997, but the organizational effort has been bogged down in a mire of bureaucratic infighting, missed deadlines and cost over-runs.

Only in the last three years, have the organizers, the government and construction firms managed to get their collective act together. And, since March, when a new government took power and made the Olympics its overriding priority, the general feeling in Athens is that things are now on track.

Stratis Stratigis, former president of the Athens Organizing Committee, is confident that all the Olympic facilities will be ready on time.

"They are going to be completed on time," he said. "It starts at a slow pace, and finishes at a crazy pace."

Greece is spending around 6 billion euros (7.2 billion US dollars) on readying the country of 10 million people for the world's largest sporting event. That includes new expressways and high-speed rail lines, medical facilities and other public infrastructure as well as 37 venues.

Government officials have said the final cost will not be known until after the Games. Some analysts estimate the price tag could reach 10 billion (12 billion US dollars) and sink Greece into debt for years.

International Olympic Committee president (IOC) Jacques Rogge also expressed his concern over the huge costs.

In an interview with Belgian newspaper Le Soir last month, the IOC chief criticized the glass-and-steel roof of the Main Stadium, which cost a mammoth 189 million euros and was only fitted a few weeks ago.

But some costs were unavoidable in the wake of the September 11,2001 terror attacks in the United States. The security budget, soaring from 650 millions euros to one billion euros, is three times higher than those of the Sydney Games in 2000.

Eleftherios Ikonomou, spokesman for the Greek Ministry of Public Order, said the terror attacks in New York changed how Greek officials had to look at threats. During the quadrennial Games, Greece will deploy a security force of 70,000 patrolling the city, the sea and the sky.

"The challenge is how to do what we must do, while making it clear to visitors that this is a celebration," he said.

John Golias, general secretary of the Transportation Ministry, said all of the transportation systems specially built for the Games, including a train from the airport into the city and a tramway to venues on the coast near Athens, will be ready by July 20.

"I think this and other projects are also images of what Greeks can do, if they really work under a strict organization plan," said Golias.

Athens traffic is chaotic at rush hours, so Golias is urging his fellow Greeks, as well as visitors, to use public transportation during the Games. Private cars, taxis and motorbikes will not be allowed to the special lanes that have been reserved for buses ferrying athletes, journalists and officials to the various sites.

He acknowledged, however, it will be hard to get the Greeks to abandon their cars.

"What we say is that we offer an alternative that is acceptable," he said. "Whether they'll use it is something different. Of course, there will be an increase of travel time by car. This is for sure."

The most troubling issue is security, and delays in completing sports sites and transportation links are adding to the sense of vulnerability. A sophisticated security command center will not be operational until late-July, so there may not be enough time for its surveillance systems to be completely checked and its personnel fully trained.

With its mad scramble to finish everything on time for the Olympics, what Greece now wants most is to earn IOC president's traditional accolade, denied only to the 1996 Atlanta Games, that Athens has hosted the best-ever Games.

Source: Xinhua