China vows safe Olympics

Chinese authorities have moved to assure athletes and spectators arriving in Beijing that the Olympic games will be safe, after an attack in western Xinjiang province killed 16 police officers.

Tuesday's attempt to allay people's security concerns came as officials in Xinjiang said that 18 "terrorists from abroad" had been arrested in the province.

China's Olympics organising committee said that it was prepared for "all possible threats".

"We believe, with the support of the government, with the help of the international community, we have the confidence and the ability to host a safe and secure Olympic games," Sun Weide, a committee spokesman, said.

China has gone all out to ensure security for the games, deploying such hardware as surface-to-air missiles near sports venues and more than 100,000 security personnel for the games, which begin on Friday and end on August 24.

Neil Fergus, who was the director of security intelligence at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, said China's security preparation for the games was "second to none".

"At this stage there's no reason to think that the Beijing Olympic games are any less secure than previous games and in fact they may be the most secure games we've ever seen," he said.