Construction of a highway on Mount Qomolangma, the world's tallest peak, will be completed before August 2008, in time for the Beijing Olympic Games, said a top official with the Tibet autonomous regional government on Wednesday.

"We'll ensure completion of the road by all means by next August," said Qiangba Puncog, chairman of the Tibet autonomous regional government, at Wednesday's press conference on Tibet's social and economic development.

The project aims to turn a 110-km rough road linking Tingri County of Xigaze Prefecture at the foot of the mountain to the Base Camp into a blacktop highway fenced by undulating guardrails.

On completion, the highway will become the major route for tourists and mountaineers who are crowding onto Mount Qomolangma, known in the west as Mount Everest, in ever larger numbers.

"More tourists are flocking into the Qomolangma Base Camp in the recent two years," said Puncog. "Tourists from Europe and America in particular like to have a glimpse of the Mount Qomolangma."

Some of the tourists, he said, had complained the road there was in poor condition and unsafe.

Organizers of the Beijing Olympic Games have revealed ambitious plans for the longest torch relay in Olympic history -- a 137,000-km, 130-day route that would cross five continents and scale the world's summit, which straddles the border between Chinaand Nepal.

Yet Puncog said there was no immediate plan to build hotels on Mount Qomolangma because few visitors were likely to and it is difficult for them to spend nights at more than 5,000 meters above sea level.

"Mountaineers that need to stay there often bring their own tents and all other facilities," he said. "I don't rule out the possibility for hotels to be built there in the future, but at least there's no such plan at present."

(Xinhua News Agency June 20, 2007)