The Olympic flame arrived in Beijing early Tuesday for the fifth leg of a six-week global torch relay leading up to the Athens Games in August.

A small lantern carrying the flame arrived at the Beijing International Airport 6:23 am (Beijing time) aboard a Greek chartered jumbo jet painted in Olympic colors and dubbed "Zeus" for a two-day stay in the host city of the 2008 Games.

The lantern was officially received by Liu Jingmin, executive vice president of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympics (BOCOG), for a brief ceremony at the airport.

The flame was lit in Ancient Olympia on March 25 and taken to Athens' marble stadium, where the first modern Olympics were held in 1896.

It started a 78,000-kilometer journey across six continents and33 cities when it left Greece on June 2. For the first time in history, the Olympic flame will visit Africa and South America.

The torch relay returns to Greece on July 9 for the second half of its domestic relay before the start of the August 13-29 Olympics.

Yao Ming to run last leg of Olympic torch relay

All-star NBA basketball star Yao Ming is expected to join and finish the Beijing leg of 2004 Athens Olympic Games torch relay which starts tomorrow in the Chinese capital, Beijing Olympic organizers announced Monday.

The Houston Rockets centre will likely be the last of the 148 torch bearers to run in the longer-than 55 kilometre Beijing section. Yu Zaiqing, an International Olympic Committee (IOC) member and a top Chinese sports official who serves as the vice-president of Chinese Olympic Committee, will be the first bearer.

The 148-member list contains people from all walks of life, including many sporting and entertainment celebrities. Besides Yao, Chinese table tennis legend Deng Yaping; Luo Xuejuan, triple women's breaststroke world title holder; and Tian Liang, the Olympic and world diving champion, are other noted sporting names.

The eternal flame will arrive in Beijing early morning today. It will be carried to the Great Wall after a brief hand-off ceremony in the Capital International Airport. The relay takes off the next day, starting from the Tian'anmen Square and ending at the Summer Palace.

The Athens Olympic Organizing Committee is attaching great significance to the Great Wall and said it is important to include the symbolic Chinese site in the relay.

"It is a reason why the flame is staying in Beijing for two days," said Kristin Fabos, a spokeswoman from the Athens organizing committee.

Besides running, cycling will be another way to transport the flame around the city, Beijing Olympic organizers said.

"There are still millions of people in Beijing who use bicycles as their main transportation means, so I think it will be a fun to use bicycle in the relay," said Jiang Xiaoyu, vice-president of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG).

Jiang also said he is expecting to learn from the Athens torch relay helpful information for the BOCOG to employ in organizing the torch relay for the 2008 Olympic Games.

(Xinhua News Agency & China Daily June 8, 2004)