Film director Zhang Yimou said yesterday he was very confident of a successful opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics in August.

"The mass rehearsals for the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games, with more than 10,000 people involved, are going well," Zhang said before attending the First Session of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which started yesterday in the capital.

Zhang has been tasked with designing the opening and closing ceremonies for the Games.

He said he felt "regret" over Hollywood director Steven Spielberg's recent withdrawal from the Olympics as its artistic advisor.

But Spielberg's decision will not have any influence on the ceremonies, Zhang said.

The American movie director was appointed artistic advisor by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympics in April 2006, and became involved with the opening and closing ceremonies of the event, together with Zhang and Ric Rirch, the Australian director behind ceremonies at the Sydney Games in 2000.

Spielberg quit last month, citing concerns over the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, which he linked to the Chinese government.

"The Olympics shouldn't be used to solve problems that have nothing to do with the event. On the contrary, it is supposed to shun such problems," Yang Lan, a CPPCC member, said on Sunday.

Athletes will be the victims if the event is politicized, the 40-year-old TV anchorwoman said.

What the Olympics should care about is allowing athletes to compete well and fully enjoy the fun of sports, and let people of different nations experience peaceful and friendly exchanges, Yang said.

"If the Olympics are politicized, the athletes will be hurt most," Yang, one of the ambassadors for Beijing's Olympic bid, said.

She cited the example of how athletes of some countries missed out on the Olympics due to the Cold War in the 1980s - both the 1980 Moscow Games and 1984 Los Angeles Olympics were affected by boycotts.

"Those athletes were innocent."

Yang said the former president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Juan Antonio Samaranch, had told her during an interview he was resolutely opposed to politicizing the Games. The Olympic Charter outlaws political acts, she said.

"No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas," the 51st section of the charter reads.

Meanwhile, more than 60 State and government leaders across the world have made plans to attend the Beijing Olympics.

In an interview with the BBC in mid-February, US President George W. Bush said he had no reason to use the Olympics as a way to highlight political issues, because he did it "all the time" with the Chinese leadership.

"I'm going to the Olympics. I view the Olympics as a sporting event," he said.

(China Daily, Xinhua News Agency, March 4, 2008)