Beijing organisers sympathise with Iraqi athletes

BEIJING (Reuters) - Beijing organisers expressed sympathy for Iraqi athletes on Friday after the suspension of the country's National Olympic Committee (NOC) ruled them out of next month's Olympics.

The Iraqi government disbanded the NOC in May because of a dispute over how it had been assembled. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) set a deadline for its reinstatement but the government did not back down and the ban was confirmed on Thursday.

"We have noticed the relative regulations concerning the Iraq issue," Sun Weide, spokesman for the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG), told a news conference on Friday.

"It is a decision made by the IOC according to relative regulations. It is an internal affair of the IOC. BOCOG feels sorry for the Iraqi athletes being unable to participate in the Beijing Games."

At least seven Iraqi athletes, two rowers, a weightlifter, a sprinter, a discus thrower, a judoka and an archer, had earned places in Beijing.

(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney; Editing by Ed Osmond)

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