Greece faces Olympic race

Get going, girl! Rogge told Angelopoulos to move "at sprinting speed"

By Paul Wood in Athens

A senior delegation from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has concluded a visit to Greece, saying Athens must speed up its preparations for the 2004 Games.

Time is critical, we won't allow further delays

IOC delegate Jack Rogge

The head of the delegation, Jack Rogge, said that although great progress had been made since the IOC issued a warning to Athens 100 days ago, the clock was ticking.

Mr Rogge said that Greece had a marathon to run if it was going to make up for delays in organising the 2004 Games, and it would have to do it "at sprinting speed".

"You can't add pages to the calendar," he told a news conference.

"Time is critical, we won't allow further delays."

Alarm raised

The remarks reflected the uncompromising message the IOC has been delivering in Athens over the past two days.

The IOC first raised the alarm about Athens 2004 back in April, giving Greece 100 days to get its preparations back on track.

Some officials even hinted that Greece might lose the right to host the games.

Since then Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis has taken personal charge of the Games, promising that making a success of 2004 would be his government's top priority.

The Athens organising committee has also been turned upside down, with Gianna Angelopoulos, who led the city's Olympic bid, appointed to head the team.

The IOC delegation did not talk about security - perhaps the main international concern about holding the Games in Athens following the recent murder of Britain's military attache to Greece.

That issue will be addressed at another meeting in November, but IOC officials believe that the risk of a terrorist event in Athens is no greater than in other cities which have hosted the Olympics.

And they think the Greek Government is doing everything it can to get on top of the problem.