Friday, October 20 Athens behind schedule for 2004 Olympics
	Associated Press LONDON -- A senior International Olympic Committee executive has turned up the pressure on Athens, describing Greece's troubled preparations for the 2004 Summer Games as close to the breaking point. "It's very, very serious and needs to be resolved quickly and without compromise," influential IOC member Dick Pound of Canada told The Associated Press by telephone on Friday. "It's 8 to 9 on the scale of 10." While declining to rule out the possibility of the games being taken away from Greece, Pound said the next few weeks and months will be "critical." "They have a lot of things to build, a lot of things to plan, and it's going to require a 110 percent effort to get it all done on time," Pound said. "It's now more than three years since they got the games, and they are way behind a proper schedule." Athens organizers must show they are capable of making up for the lost time when a team of IOC inspectors visits the city next month, Pound said. "Clearly what has to happen is the coordination commission goes in November and gets unequivocal commitments on all the key issues," he said. While Pound said there were no plans being discussed for moving the games, he didn't discount the option. "That's a question for another day," he said, speaking from his law offices in Montreal. "At the moment, we don't have a contingency. We want Athens to deliver what it promised and would very much hope to have the games in Greece. We chose Athens and want the games to be in Athens." Pound's comments carry significant weight. He is one of the most powerful figures in the Olympic movement and is considered a top contender to succeed Juan Antonio Samaranch as IOC president next year. About 30 percent of the venues in Athens remain to be built. Under IOC pressure, the Greek government recently agreed to speed the construction timetable and have the projects ready by the end of 2003 instead of May 2004. Jacques Rogge, the IOC executive who heads the coordination commission for the 2004 Games, said last week he was confident Athens could meet the challenge and reassured the Greek government of the IOC's support. "You have all the qualifications to organize the best games that have ever been held," he said, adding the IOC is "not thinking of revoking the order of organization from Greece." Rogge earlier called for a "truce" between the government and 2004 organizers, citing the squabbling that has plagued Olympic planning. Rogge's commission next will meet in Athens Nov. 22-24. The panel will report its findings to the IOC's decision-making executive board in Lausanne, Switzerland, in December. In another development Friday, the chief organizer of the Sydney Olympics, Michael Knight, was appointed to the coordination panel for Athens. Samaranch, making the announcement in Sydney, said Knight was picked because "he was the head of the organizing committee of the best Olympic Games ever." He said Knight's experience will be valuable. Knight was Olympics Minister as well as president of the Sydney organizing committee, a dual role that Samaranch has said should be a model for Athens and other future host cities. Samaranch said last March that the Athens Games were in jeopardy because of chronic delays, describing the situation as the worst crisis facing a host city in his 20-year term. The IOC says the situation has improved since then. Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, who led the Athens bid, returned to take over the organizing committee, and Premier Costas Simitis assumed government control over the games. But there have been persistent reports of a power struggle between Angelopoulos-Daskalaki and government ministers. In a clear sign of the infighting, senior organizing committee director Costas Liaskas was fired by Simitis on Wednesday after trading insults with the public works minister over who controls Olympic projects. "There are many problems large and small that we of course should not talk about," Liaskas said in the Athens newspaper Karfi on Friday. "In Greece, we have not learned to do collective work. Everyone has his own personal strategy, his personal tactics."		ALSO SEE Dismissed Athens official says Greece almost lost games Sydney chief Knight added to Athens commission