Beijing torch reaches Acropolis

The Beijing Olympics torch relay reached the ancient Acropolis on Saturday amid heavy police security and brief demonstrations by small groups of protesters.

Police briefly scuffled with a group of anti-globalization demonstrators shortly after the relay entered the city limits. At the foot of the Acropolis, another group unfurled a banner reading "Free Tibet."

The relays were not disrupted by either protest and no arrests were reported.

More than 2,000 police had been deployed to provide security in Athens. A helicopter flew over the relay, while about a dozens plainclothes police on motorcycles flanked the torch-bearer.

Thousands of people gathered in parts of the Greek capital to watch the event, as the runners ran through streets lined with the Chinese, Greek and Olympic flags.

Bill Toomey pleads no contest to DUI

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Bill Toomey, the 1968 Olympic decathlon champion, pleaded no contest to driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs after crashing his Mercedes-Benz into two parked cars.

The 69-year-old Toomey entered the plea Tuesday, Sheryl Wolcott, a deputy district attorney for San Luis Obispo County, said Wednesday.

He was scheduled to be sentenced on April 22. Wolcott said Toomey was expected to receive the typical sentence for a first-time DUI offense, which includes two days in jail, minus one day for time served, and three years probation. Toomey also was expected to be fined $1,726 and ordered to make restitution for the damage he caused and attend an alcohol education program.

Toomey, a former county resident, was arrested on May 24 after his car hit two parked vehicles.

His attorney, Christopher Casciola, said Wednesday that Toomey had a blood-alcohol level of 0.04 percent, only half the legal limit, and that the crash resulted from Toomey also having taken prescription drugs.

The former Olympian had used a sleeping aid and some painkillers for aches stemming from his athletic career, Casciola said.

"It caused some impairment," he said.

Toomey's attorney said his client chose to enter the plea because it would have cost too much to contest it — possibly as much as $10,000.

"You need two or three experts, all who are out of the area, to effectively defend yourself," he said. "We're looking at a toxicologist, a pharmaceutical expert and a physician."

Toomey has been a motivational speaker and has his own line of nutritional supplements, according to his Web site.

Pellegrini sets 400 freestyle record

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Federica Pellegrini set a world record in the women's 400-meter freestyle Monday at the European swimming championships.

The Italian, fifth in the world championships last year, won in 4 minutes, 1.53 seconds, easily beating the old world mark of 4:02.13 set by Laure Manaudou of France two years ago at the last European championships.

Pellegrini rebounded after being disqualified for a false start in the 200 freestyle heats.

"Of course I was a bit upset because of my disqualification in the 200 free," she said. "Today I desperately wanted to win gold but didn't at all reckon with such a time."

Coralie Balmy of France was second in 4:04.15, and Camelia Potec of Romania was third in 4:05.62.

It was the second world record of the night after Marleen Veldhuis earlier lowered the 50-meter freestyle mark.

Greeks light Beijing Olympics flame

Two men carrying black flags ran onto the field of the stadium in Ancient Olympia during Monday's flame-lighting ceremony for the Beijing Olympics, evading massive security aimed at preventing such disruptions amid China's crackdown in Tibet.

The incident occurred Monday while Liu Qi, president of the Beijing Olympics organizing committee and Beijing Communist Party Secretary, was giving a speech. The men, apparently free press advocates, were detained by police, more than 1,000 of which were deployed around the site.

International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge attended the ceremony at the 2,800-year-old birthplace of the ancient games in southern Greece. The flame for the Aug. 8-24 games was lit using the sun's rays.

Greek officials said politics have no place at the event ahead of expected protests by pro-Tibetan groups. Meanwhile, China pledged strict security measures to ensure that the torch relay, which begins with the lighting ceremony, is not marred by protests.

The banner belongs to the Paris-based journalism advocacy group Reporters Without Borders, which confirmed it was their flag. The group said three members, including the group's secretary general Robert Menard, managed to get into the ceremony without being stopped.

China's Communist leadership has faced a public relations disaster since demonstrations against Chinese rule turned violent March 14 in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, sparking waves of unrest in surrounding provinces. People who sympathize with the Tibetan cause have also staged rallies in other countries.

The death toll from the violence has varied and been impossible to confirm independently. China's reported death toll is 22 but Tibet's exiled government says 80 Tibetans were killed. Another 19 died in subsequent violence in Gansu province, it said.

Rogge told The Associated Press on Monday that he was engaged in "silent diplomacy" with China on Tibet and other human rights issues. But he also said there was no credible momentum for a boycott and that while he was concerned by the violence in Tibet, the IOC could do no more than call for a peaceful resolution because it is a sports organization.

Among the groups planning to protest was Students for a Free Tibet. The group's director Lhadon Tethong said officers also detained one Tibetan campaigner and a Greek photographer with him in the village of Ancient Olympia, just outside the site. "One of our colleagues saw them being dragged by about 20 police through town," Tethong said.

The ceremony was held an hour early — starting at 5 a.m. EDT — to avoid rain forecast for later Monday. An actress dressed as a high priestess lit the flame using a convex mirror to focus the sun's rays on the Olympic torch.

From Olympia, the flame will start on a 85,000-mile journey to Beijing, going through 20 countries before the Olympics open on Aug. 8. Chinese media reported that officials — who have blamed the unrest on the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama — were prepared to prevent a disruption of the torch relay.

China's plans to take the torch through Tibet and to the top of Mount Everest have upset Tibetan activist groups, which accuse Beijing of using the event to convey a false message of harmony in the troubled Himalayan region. Chinese Communist troops occupied Tibet in 1951 and Beijing continues to rule the region with a heavy hand.

"The more determined the Dalai clique is to ruin the torch relay and the Olympic Games, the more hard and good work we need to do on the preparation and the implementation of all aspects," Yin Xunping, a Communist Party official, was quoted as saying by the Tibet Daily newspaper.

Yin is party secretary of the Tibet Mountain Climbing Team, which is participating in the Mount Everest segment of the torch relay. He spoke at a meeting organized last week by Tibet's sports bureau, whose head, Dejizhuoga, urged "intense precautions and heightened security."

The report, cited Monday by the official Xinhua News Agency, did not give any details of what measures would be taken. A receptionist at the Tibet sports bureau said no officials were available for comment Monday.

Mount Everest straddles the border between Nepal and Tibet. China has already begun denying mountaineers permission to climb the Tibetan side of the mountain — a move that reflects government concerns that activists may try to disrupt its torch plans.

The first torchbearer in the relay will be Greece's Alexandros Nikolaidis, who won a silver medal in taekwondo at the 2004 Athens Games. He will hand the flame to Luo Xuejuan, who won China's only swimming gold medal in Athens.

Germany warns China Olympics at risk

Germany's foreign minister has warned China that its response to the crisis in Tibet may jeopardize the Summer Olympics in Beijing, a newspaper reported on Friday.

Frank Walter Steinmeier criticized the Chinese government's lack of transparency in the ongoing conflict, according to an interview with the newspaper Bild that will appear in Saturday's edition.

"This much is clear: the Olympic games don't work like they did 80 years ago," Steinmeier said according to an advance copy of the article made available by Bild Friday.

"You can't just host glamorous events for television while things are going topsy-turvy in your own backyard. The host has to allow thousands of journalists into the country — you won't be able to sweep anything under the rug."

Tibetan exile groups say 99 people have been killed in a Chinese crackdown on protests against its rule of Tibet over the last few weeks. The protests began in Tibet and spread to other parts of China. Chinese officials say 16 have died.

Casualty figures and details about the protests and China's response have proven difficult to confirm because China is tightly controlling the information and keeping out all foreign journalists.

"The German federal government is saying to the Chinese government: be transparent!" the newspaper quoted him as saying. "We want to know exactly what is going on in Tibet. China is only hurting itself when it prevents outside observers from getting a sense of what the situation is."

On Thursday, the last two remaining foreign journalists in Tibet — Georg Blume of Germany and Kristin Kupfer of Austria — were forced to leave the capital, Lhasa, according to Reporters Without Borders. Earlier this week, Economist correspondent James Miles and a group of 15 Hong Kong reporters were forced out.

Steinmeier also warned China to avoid any violent measures in its standoff with Tibetan protesters.

"A solution can only be found through dialogue," Bild quoted him as saying. "The Tibetans want to preserve their culture, China wants political stability — with that in mind, the two sides need to approach one another."

China: Dalai Lama wants to sour Olympics

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao accused supporters of the Dalai Lama on Tuesday of organizing violent clashes in Tibet in hopes of sabotaging the Beijing Olympics and bolstering their campaign for independence in the Himalayan territory.

The Dalai Lama urged his followers to remain peaceful, saying he would resign as head of the Tibetan government-in-exile if violence got out of control. But he also suggested China may have fomented unrest in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa and nearby provinces to discredit him.

In striking an uncompromising line, Wen underscored the communist leadership's determination to restore order in Tibet and Tibetan areas of neighboring provinces.

"There is ample fact — and we also have plenty of evidence — proving that this incident was organized, premeditated, masterminded and incited by the Dalai clique," he told reporters at his annual news conference at the end of China's national legislative session.

"By staging that incident, they want to undermine the Beijing Olympic Games, and they also try to serve their hidden agenda by inciting such incidents," said Wen.

He said Lhasa was returning to normal and "will be reopened to the rest of the world," but did not specify when.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported Wednesday that 105 people had turned themselves into police in Lhasa after the violent anti-government protests there last week. The communist government on Sunday had promised leniency for those who handed themselves in, and harsh punishment for those who did not.

Xinhua quoted a government official as saying the people who gave themselves up had been "directly involved in the beating, smashing, looting and arson last Friday."

"Some have turned in the money they looted," Baema Chilain, vice chairman of the regional government, was quoted as saying.

Independent reporting from the region was impossible because of China's tight control over information and a ban on trips to the area by foreign reporters.

John Kenwood, a 19-year-old Canadian tourist who left Lhasa on Tuesday, said he saw street cleaners wearing orange vests emblazoned with the Beijing Olympics symbol.

"When the fighting began, you saw no Chinese," said Kenwood as he arrived in Nepal. "Now you see no Tibetans on the streets. The young Tibetans are probably hiding."

The Lhasa protests, led by Buddhist monks, began peacefully March 10, the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. Tibet had been effectively independent for decades before Chinese communist troops imposed Beijing's control in 1950.

The demonstrations took a violent turn Friday, leaving 16 people dead and dozens injured, according to the Chinese government. The Dalai Lama's government-in-exile in India contends 80 Tibetans died.

The protests have focused world attention on China's human rights record ahead of the Olympics. The government had hoped the Aug. 8-24 games would burnish its image as a modernizing nation.

The Dalai Lama, speaking in Dharmsala, India, seat of his government-in-exile, urged nonviolence.

"I say to China and the Tibetans: Don't commit violence," he told reporters. He suggested the Chinese themselves may have had a hand in the upheaval to discredit him.

"It's possible some Chinese agents are involved there," he said. "Sometimes totalitarian regimes are very clever, so it is important to investigate."

If violence spirals out of control, he said his "only option is to completely resign" as head of the government-in-exile. A top aide said later the Dalai Lama would not give up his role as spiritual leader for Tibetan Buddhists.

U.S. officials urged China to address Tibetans' grievances and to engage in direct talks with the Dalai Lama.

"I do think that his statements point out the fact that he is not arguing for independence or separation from China. Quite the opposite, he is arguing for dialogue with the Chinese," said State Department spokesman Tom Casey.

Chinese authorities pressed ahead with efforts to round up protesters in Lhasa. Witnesses said officials had been detaining people since the weekend.

Duoji Zeren, vice governor of Tibet, was quoted on state television as saying authorities "would take determined methods to capture the primary suspects," but no details were given.

Protests spilled over from Tibet into surrounding provinces in recent days, as police and soldiers set up checkpoints across a wide swath of western China. On Tuesday, thousands of Tibetans flooded the streets in Seda, in the southern Chinese province of Sichuan, according to the Tibet Center for Human Rights and Democracy.

Activist groups also circulated graphic photographs of protesters who they said were massacred Sunday by Chinese police at Kirti monastery in Sichuan province. The images showed several men who were apparently shot and bodies covered in blood. There was no way to verify the authenticity of the photographs.

Gebrselassie could miss Olympic marathon

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World record holder Haile Gebrselassie is almost certain to miss the marathon at the Beijing Olympics because of the city's poor air quality.

The Ethiopian, who has asthma, fears damage to his health by running through the streets of the Chinese capital. The 34-year-old Gebrselassie would be a gold medal favorite if he did take part.

"That is not yet decided," Gebrselassie said.

Gebrselassie will make a final decision after the Hengelo meet on May 24 in the Netherlands, when he finds out if he has qualified for the 10,000-meter race in Beijing, his agent Jos Hermens said in a telephone interview Monday.

Gebrselassie already has two Olympic titles in the 10,000.

High temperatures could also be a problem in the marathon for Gebrselassie, Hermens said.

"Haile wants to do everything possible for his country," Hermens said. "With three Ethiopians, they could get gold, silver and bronze."

Concerns about Beijing's pollution have dominated preparations for the games.

Gebrselassie has had problems with his lungs in the past and is known to have a pollen allergy. Hermens said many racers who have performed in damaging conditions have never returned to their best.

"It may be 1 or 2 percent (damage), but that means a lot for such an athlete," Hermens said. "And if you look deep into his heart, he wants another marathon record."

Gebrselassie's record is 2 hours, 4 minutes, 26 seconds.

He also wants to keep running until the 2012 London Games, where the climate would better suit him.

After winning the 10,000 at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and 2000 Sydney Games, Gebrselassie finished fifth in Athens in 2004 in a race won by teammate Kenenisa Bekele.

The marathon has a special reputation in Ethiopia since barefoot runner Abebe Bikila won the 1960 Rome marathon and repeated the feat, with shoes, in Tokyo four years later.

Gebrselassie also has four 10,000 world championship titles and has broken two dozen world records.

Because of pollution problems, many countries have based their training camps outside of China before the Olympics begin on Aug. 8.

Harmon, not McEnroe, to coach in Beijing

First Andy Roddick, now Patrick McEnroe. The United States' men's tennis team at the Beijing Olympics will be missing the top player and the captain from the squad that ended the country's 12-year championship drought in the Davis Cup.

McEnroe told the U.S. Tennis Association he did not want to return as Olympic tennis coach, a job he held at the 2004 Athens Games. Instead, Rodney Harmon will lead the American men in Beijing, pending U.S. Olympic Committee approval.

"I just felt like, I've been there, I was lucky enough to have the experience," McEnroe said Monday in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "I've been the captain for eight years. It seemed like a good opportunity for someone else to have that experience."

Jay Berger was chosen as Harmon's assistant.

The USTA is expected to announce the selections of Harmon and Berger — along with Fed Cup captain Zina Garrison as the women's Olympic tennis coach and Lori McNeil as her assistant — on Tuesday. Garrison won a gold medal and a bronze medal as a player at the 1988 Olympics, and she coached the U.S. women in 2004.

Harmon, a U.S. Open quarterfinalist in 1982, is heading to his first Olympics. He's been the director of men's tennis for the USTA's player development program since 2002.

"It's a tremendous honor and a great opportunity to work with some of the best players in the world at one of the greatest events in the world," said Harmon, the Big East Conference tennis coach of the year in 1997 at Miami.

News of McEnroe's choice to bypass Beijing comes shortly after word emerged that Roddick will skip the Olympics to focus on preparing for the U.S. Open, the site of his only Grand Slam title.

"We really came to it separately," McEnroe said. "It wasn't something where we made the decision together in any way."

The No. 6-ranked Roddick announced last week he would defend his title at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington, a hard-court tournament that runs Aug. 11-17, the same dates as the Olympic tennis competition. The U.S. Open begins Aug. 25.

"Andy has to do what he feels is in his best interest," Harmon said in a telephone interview.

McEnroe and Roddick helped the United States win the 2007 Davis Cup, beating Russia in the final. When the team defeated Austria in February in the first round of the 2008 event, McEnroe told his players that he wouldn't be going to Beijing.

"If all the guys came to me and said, 'Hey, Patrick, we really need you to come,' I would have considered that," McEnroe said. "They know how much I support them, and if there's anything I can do to help them prepare, I'll do it. I'm in touch with them pretty regularly."

But he said a busy summer and fall travel schedule, including television work at Grand Slam tournaments and his Davis Cup duties, contributed to his opting out of the trip to China.

"It's obviously a long way to go," McEnroe said. "I can't lie. If it were in New York City, I might reconsider."

Davis Cup regulars James Blake and twins Bob and Mike Bryan figure to be top choices for Harmon's Olympic roster. The U.S. tennis teams for Beijing will be based on the rankings of June 9, the day after the French Open ends.

In 2004, the American contingent came away with one medal, Mardy Fish's silver in men's singles.

"I feel like Rodney's fully prepared," McEnroe said, "and I feel like as a country we have a good chance to bring medals home, on both the men's and women's side."

IOC: Don't boycott Olympics over Tibet

International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge poured cold water Saturday on calls for a boycott of the Summer Games in Beijing over China's crackdown in Tibet, saying it would only hurt athletes.

"We believe that the boycott doesn't solve anything," Rogge told reporters on this Caribbean island. "On the contrary, it is penalizing innocent athletes and it is stopping the organization from something that definitely is worthwhile organizing."

Demonstrations against Chinese rule in Tibet on Friday — the most violent riots there in nearly two decades — left at least 30 protesters dead, according to a Tibetan exile group. China ordered tourists out of Tibet's capital and troops patrolled the streets on Saturday.

On a six-day tour of the Caribbean, Rogge expressed condolences for the victims and said he hopes calm will be restored immediately. He declined to say whether the committee would change its stance if violence continues or more people are killed.

"The International Olympic Committee has consistently resisted calls for a boycott of the Olympic games," Rogge said. He declined to comment further on Tibet during a brief news conference.

IOC Vice President Thomas Bach said the committee will speak with China about human rights and condemned the crackdown, saying "every use of violence is a step backwards."

But "a boycott would be the wrong way because that will cut lines of communication," he added.

The committee issued a statement calling for an end to the violence.

"The IOC shares the world's desire for a peaceful resolution to the tensions of past days in the Tibetan region of China," it said. "We hope that calm can return to the region as quickly as possible."

Ueberroth: Olympics can change things

Peter Ueberroth believes a person-to-person approach can change relationships among countries, and that the Olympics have and will continue to play a significant role.

Some human rights advocates have criticized China as it prepares for this year's Beijing Olympics.

"Almost any position people take about human rights, they should have as many ties as possible to China in the long-term," Ueberroth, head of the U.S. Olympic Committee, said Wednesday. "That has a much more positive effect than trying to have confrontations.

"But they have to be real ties — ties between athletes, ties between business, ties between friends and tourists."

Speaking at the World Congress of Sports, a gathering made up mostly of sports business executives, Ueberroth urged the 500 or so in the audience to make friends and contacts in China and predicted the economy there will continue to grow immensely.

Ueberroth, who headed the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, doesn't believe the games should be politicized, and said past boycotts affected just one group.

"Boycotts do one thing very well and only one thing: they punish athletes," he said.

He noted that the U.S. boycott of the 1980 games in Moscow didn't affect the Soviet Union's presence in Afghanistan at the time. The Soviets responded by boycotting the Los Angeles Olympics four years later, but Ueberroth and the L.A. committee essentially revived the Olympic movement with the first "private-enterprise Olympics" with money from sponsors, and those games even turned a profit.

Ueberroth said the Moscow Olympics still were "terrific games" and opened the Soviet Union up to the world.

Ueberroth recalled that China was on the list of 100 countries that were supposed to boycott the 1984 games, but a man working with the L.A. committee called him from China in the middle of the night and said, "They're coming."

"I feel indebted to China," Ueberroth said. "They came and they won their first medal. Now they're going to be the host. They're going to put on great games, open their country up more than it's ever been open."

5,000 years in 50 minutes at Olympics - Yah

China's most famous film director will shoulder the burden of boiling down 5,000 years of history into 50 minutes for the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.

Zhang Yimou, the director general of the opening and closing ceremonies, has never faced an editing job quite like this one.

"Fifty minutes is not enough time to feature the quintessence of a Chinese culture that has been running for 5,000 years," Zhang said Wednesday, speaking for the first time about the Olympic opening ceremonies on Aug. 8.

Zhang won't have the help of American director Steven Spielberg, who dropped out as an artistic adviser to the opening and closing ceremonies last month. Spielberg cited a lack of progress by China on pressuring Sudan to end the crisis in Darfur.

"I personally find it regrettable," Zhang said. "About half a year ago, (Spielberg) came to Beijing. We had two meetings and discussed a lot of things in relation to the artistic design of the Beijing Olympics.

"It is a pity, but I don't think that will affect the opening ceremony of the Olympics because we have a lot of other domestic and foreign experts."

Zhang said his goal is to top the "amazing" opening ceremony of the 2004 Athens Olympics.

The director "House of Flying Daggers," "Raise the Red Lantern" and "Not One Less" is famous for using red in his films. Zhang said the color was sure to light up the opening ceremony, which will last about 3 1/2 hours.

His major fear is that rain — August is a damp month in Beijing — might ruin opening night.

"Rain is the No. 1 concern of ours," Zhang said. "We have some alternate plans we could do in case of rain. First, we hope God will bless us."

Zhang didn't provide much of a glimpse into the specifics of the opening ceremonies, which are already being rehearsed with a cast expected to reach 10,000.

"If you know all the details about a movie, you will lose interest before the preview," said Zhang, who confirmed he'd signed a confidentiality agreement.

There were unconfirmed reports that suggested jail time for violating it.

"Every person involved in the preparatory work signed an agreement," Zhang said. "All the confidentiality provisions are from the IOC with some Chinese regulation added. It is a kind of responsibility we have to shoulder."

Zhang hedged on whether actress Tang Wei would appear in his Olympic productions.

Tang, the star of Ang Lee's film "Lust, Caution" was recently blacklisted by China's State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television. Reports said TV stations have been ordered to stop airing her commercials.

The film, set in Japan-occupied Shanghai in the 1940s, includes sex scenes between Tang and actor Tony Leung. The mainland China version was heavily edited.

Zhang said he'd been under no pressure from the Chinese government regarding his Olympic cast.

"We are friends," Zhang said of Taiwanese director Lee, an adviser on the opening ceremony. "I've talked to him about the opening ceremony, but nothing else."

Lee won the 2005 Academy Award for best director of "Brokeback Mountain." His other films include "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," "The Wedding Banquet" and "Sense and Sensibility."

Yao plans Olympic return

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Yao Ming's message to his Chinese fans was clear: He plans to play in the Beijing Olympics.

In a letter published Friday in Chinese-language newspapers, the Houston Rockets star assured fans that his operation Monday to repair a stress fracture in his left foot was successful and he'll be fit to play in August despite missing the rest of the NBA season.

"My injury has made many of you worried and you expressed your concern and sympathy in many ways," Yao wrote. "You have always supported me and encouraged me at the lowest point of my career. And now I want to say thank you for your care and support."

Yao thanked officials from the Chinese Basketball Administration, family and teammates. He promised a quick return, which his doctors have said is likely. He's expected to need four months to heal.

"The surgery was very successful and I'll start physical recovery very soon," he wrote. "I'll do whatever I can to overcome the difficulty and play for China in Olympics and be in my best form.

"I'll see you in the Olympics. Thanks, everybody."

Republican: Bush should skip Olympics

A House Republican — chafing over President Bush's plan to attend this year's Beijing Olympics — wants to legally prohibit other U.S. government officials from using federal money to go.

Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., cited concerns about China's record on human rights during a congressional hearing on Thursday and said Bush's presence would be akin to President Franklin D. Roosevelt sitting in the same stands as Germany's Adolf Hitler in 1936.

"Ronald Reagan would have never gone to the Olympics. I guarantee you that. Never gone," said Wolf, a member of the House Appropriations Committee.

Wolf, who co-chairs a congressional caucus on Sudan, blames China for not using its close ties with the Sudanese government to end the violence in Darfur. Wolf also charges that China has sold weapons to U.S. enemies, jailed countless political prisoners and tried to spy on America's high-tech industry, including companies in his district.

Wolf's legislation would not specifically prohibit the president from attending, which the congressman said would be tough to impose on a commander-in-chief. Instead the bill would focus on barring diplomatic and other federal officials.

Any American seen waving in the stands "will go down in history as cooperating in the genocide Olympics of 2008," Wolf said. "And history will never, ever, ever forgive them."

Last month, Bush said he planned to raise worries about human rights abuse in China with President Hu Jintao when he attends the games in August.

Bush was asked about reports that a laid-off Chinese factory worker faces subversion charges for saying human rights are more important than the Olympics.

"I am not the least bit shy of bringing up the concerns expressed by this factory worker, and I believe that I'll have an opportunity to do so with the president and, at the same time, enjoy a great sporting event," Bush said.

Wolf said the administration is missing its opportunity to deal with the crisis in Darfur.

Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, who was testifying on foreign aid programs, responded to Wolf's comments by saying only that "there is no greater spokesman for human rights in the world than our president."

Wen says Olympics key for development

Premier Wen Jiabao said Wednesday that China plans to reform its stifling Cabinet ministry system and that the Summer Olympics will be vital for the country's economic and social development.

In his policy speech at the opening of the annual session of the national legislature, Wen also repeated hardline comments against independence moves by self-governed Taiwan.

The Olympics, which open Aug. 8, are a source of huge national pride to the Chinese, and the government has invested tens of billions to remake Beijing for them.

"All sons and daughters of the Chinese nation are looking forward to them, and they will be of great importance in promoting China's economic and social development and increasing friendship and cooperation between Chinese people and the peoples of other countries," Wen told the 2,970 delegates.

Restructuring government agencies and ministries is vital to keeping China's breakneck growth on track and to eliminating waste and protecting the environment. The ministries often overlap and compete on policy.

Wen said the changes will "mainly center on changing the way the government functions, appropriately dividing responsibilities among departments that exercise macro-economic regulation, adjusting and improving bodies in charge of management, and improving departments responsible for public administration and public services."

He said detailed plans on the reforms will be submitted to the NPC for approval. The legislative session ends March 18.

As Wen spoke in the Great Hall of the People, security was heavy outside in Tiananmen Square. One woman who got close to reporters lining up to enter the hall threw sheets of white paper into the air.

Police quickly grabbed the papers and three officers took the woman, who looked in her 40s, away in a van.

A day after China said it would boost military spending by nearly 18 percent this year, Wen repeated government warnings against any moves by Taiwan toward institutionalizing the island's de facto independence.

"We firmly oppose Taiwan independence, secessionist activities and will never allow anyone to separate Taiwan from the motherland ... by any means."

"Attempts of Taiwan independence, secessionist forces to deny the reality that the mainland and Taiwan belong to one and the same China and to undermine peace in the Taiwan strait are doomed to fail," he said.

Beijing is particularly anxious about a referendum accompanying Taiwan's March 22 presidential election. It will ask voters if they favor joining the United Nations under the name Taiwan — a move China views as an attempt by Taipei toward the legal independence Beijing has said it would squelch with military force.

On the environment, Wen said China would close backward production facilities in high-polluting industries such electricity, steel and coal.

He also said China planned to increase its urban sewage treatment capacity, with a goal of 100 percent collection and treatment of sewage in 36 large cities within two years.