The capital will need to fix those headaches before the Games in August and 'fulfil promises to the international community', said Mr Guo, delivering a 11/2- hour-long report as the city's legislative body began its annual session.

As expected, he put preparations for the Olympics at the top of the city's work agenda for the coming year, and outlined some measures Beijing would use to deal with its choking traffic and air pollution - urgent tasks since the Games are now just 200 days away.

Unlike in Athens, where construction delays threatened the 2004 Games, Beijing's hardware - including new stadiums, airport terminal, train station, highways and subway lines - is on track.

But the city of 15 million is plagued by questions over its ability to rein in air pollution and ensure food safety for the 550,000 overseas visitors expected during the Games.

Long-time residents say air quality has improved. But Beijing's dense smog - caused by soaring car use, industrial emissions, dust storms and a building boom - might cause some endurance events like the marathon to be postponed or cancelled during the Games, International Olympic Committee chief Jacques Rogge said last August.

Beijing has been working on a 120 billion yuan (S$24 billion) plan to clean up its air, including moving heavy-polluting factories out of the city.

During the Olympic trial events last August, Beijing got 1.3 million cars off its roads each day by grounding vehicles with odd- and even-number licence plates on different days of the week. The city authorities are said to be considering using the same strategy during the Games.

Yesterday, Mr Guo said the authorities would enforce the 'strictest pollution-discharge standards', curb vehicle emissions at night and control construction dust.

The city's traffic-control plan needs to 'further improve' for the Games to go smoothly, he told some 740 deputies of the Beijing People's Congress as they waded through copies of his 32-page report.

'The whole world is watching us,' Mr Guo told his colleagues, including Mr Liu Qi, the powerful Beijing party boss and president of the Beijing Olympic Games organising committee, who sat on stage alongside senior officials.

Mr Guo, 60, who is seen as an ally of Chinese President Hu Jintao, was named Beijing's acting and deputy mayor last November. He was previously party boss in the impoverished eastern Anhui province.

Hand-picked by a central leadership anxious to see the country's big coming-of-age party staged without a hitch, Mr Guo is expected to be made full mayor next Saturday when the municipal meetings end.

He replaces Mr Wang Qishan, 59, who has been elevated to the decision-making Politburo and is slated to become a vice-premier in the coming months.

With growing worries over inflation across the country, Mr Guo also pledged that the Beijing authorities will ensure there is a steady supply of basic necessities and closely monitor prices to prevent them from 'rising precipitously' during the Olympics.

simcy@sph.com.sg