Chinese scale down Olympic stadia plans

Beijing's Olympic organisers are to save vast amounts of money by building five new stadia for 2008 instead of the 10 originally planned.

China is due to spend £21.3billion on the Games, with at least £1.5b going towards ultra-modern facilities, many of which are already under construction.

But Beijing's Communist Party chief Liu Qi, who is also chairman of the city's Organising Committee, said: "If we can renovate an old stadium, we will not build a new one. If we can use a temporary building, we will not build a permanent one."

China has already halted construction of the "bird nest" stadium. New blueprints show a roofless stadium, which could save £20m.