BEIJING Olympics inspectors gave an upbeat assessment on Saturday of Beijing's bid to host the 2008 games, but skirted human rights issues and cast doubts on plans to stage beach volleyball on Tiananmen Square.

After an "intense" four-day tour of the city, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) team said it was impressed by overwhelming public support for the Beijing bid and an ambitious plan for a massive environmental clean-up.

"I think we've got a fairly good picture of the city," IOC team leader Hein Verbruggen told a news conference.

"We have tried to feel what is the support of the population for the bid," he said. "I think we have found in general great enthusiasm."

China has highlighted the "fervent support" of its 1.3 billion people for the bid to counter human rights critics, who helped scupper Beijing's bid for the 2000 games.

The city capped its campaign to impress the 17 IOC inspectors with China's biggest ever bicycle rally involving 10,000 cyclists sporting baseball hats in Olympic colors, who pedaled past a giant portrait of chairman Mao Zedong.

But the vision of Beijing as a modern, democratic metropolis was tainted this week by the sentencing of an activist to two years in a labor camp for writing to the IOC urging it to press for the release of dissidents.

Police have confirmed the sentence on Shan Chengfeng, one of 28 dissidents who signed the letter, and a Hong Kong rights group said on Thursday police had detained another signatory.

(Reuter)