OLYMPICS: Beijing's "Bird's Nest" stadium and "Water Cube" aquatics centre, the showpiece venues for the 2008 Olympic Games, are on target for completion by the end of next year, officials said yesterday.

More than 80 per cent of the twisting steel structure that gives the 91,000-seater stadium its nickname is already in place, with the remainder set to be completed over the next few months.

"We're confident we'll be finished by the end of the year," Zhang Hengli, deputy manager of the National Stadium Company, told reporters at the site.

"We've had a few problems with the material used to connect the angles of the structure and twisting the steel into shape but we've overcome those.

"The whole stadium will be finished in late 2007."

Beijing suffered a minor earthquake earlier this month but Zhang said the stadium had been designed to resist tremors up to 8.0 on the Richter scale, much bigger than the 5.1 registered on July 4th.

The 3.13 billion yuan (310 million) stadium will host the opening and closing ceremonies as well as the athletics and soccer finals for the games.

Some of the scaffolding has been removed from the nearby aquatic centre, revealing the honeycomb steel structure into which special membrane cushions will start to be fitted later this month. The 100 million centre will host the swimming, diving and water polo events.

"The external layer of the membrane should be finished by the end of the year and the venue will be handed over at the end of October 2007," said Wang Wubin, deputy manager of the project.

Beijing is building or refurbishing 31 venues in the city for the Olympics, which will begin on August 8th, 2008.

The sailing events will be hosted at a new complex in Qingdao with the equestrian events in Hong Kong.

The cities of Shanghai, Qinhuangdao and Tianjin will host matches in the preliminary rounds of the soccer tournaments.

The first Olympic test events will take place next month at the Qingdao sailing centre and the Fengtai softball field in the south of Beijing.