Cash shortfall for Sydney Olympics

A report in a Sydney newspaper says the government of New South Wales in Australia has underestimated the cost of staging the Olympics in the year two-thousand by more than three hundred million dollars.

The Sydney Morning Herald says the organisers have overlooked a whole range of costs, such as extra police and transport staff and the need to upgrade cargo docks to take passengers.

The report says that if the government is to honour its pledge to avoid borrowing, it will have to order spending cuts, especially in social welfare benefits.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service