Until now Chinese officials have never admitted to a single death on any of the dozens of Olympic construction sites.

'During the past five years of construction on Olympic venues, there were six fatalities,' said a top work safety official.

Ding Zhenkuan, deputy head of Beijing's bureau of work safety, said that the figures were for all construction sites for Olympic venues.

In addition to the deaths, he said one worker had been seriously injured during the construction period and three had suffered minor injuries.

Two of the deaths occurred at the Bird's Nest, the main Olympic Stadium, one last year and one in 2006, he said.

Last week Britain's Sunday Times newspaper alleged that more than 10 workers had died in accidents during a rush to complete the 90,000-seat National Stadium for the August Games.

The newspaper cited several unnamed witnesses to the deaths and claimed that officials had paid unusually high amounts of compensation to silence the families of dead employees.

Li Yizhong, China's work safety minister, last Tuesday called for an investigation into the report.

Beijing Olympics organising committee officials dismissed the report as untrue.

China's work safety record is appalling and tens of thousands of people die every year in mines, factories and on construction sites, according to official sources. -- AFP