The torch relay for the Beijing Olympic Games will last seven days on Greek territory, after the Lighting of the Flame in Ancient Olympia on March 24.

According to a press release from the Hellenic Olympic Committee, the Olympic Flame will cover in Greece 1.528 kilometers by the hands of 605 bearers.

The torch relay will pass through 16 prefectures, 43 municipalities, four communities and there will be organized 29 ceremonies in specific cities along the route of the torch relay.

The Olympic Flame will be lit in Ancient Olympia at 12.00 o'clock March 24 and will be handed over to the Organizing Committee of Beijing on the March 30 at 15.00 at the Panathenaikon Stadium in Athens, the venue where the first Modern Olympics Games began in 1896.

(Xinhua News Agency January 31, 2008)