The popular seaside city of Qingdao in east China's Shandong Province was the theater Friday of a maritime anti-terrorist drill for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The drill, involving more than 800 marine police and 27 naval vessels, was held in the closed sailing venue area set aside for the 2008 Olympic Games.

A team of "terrorists" aboard a motorboat and armed with guns and bombs "hijacked" an oil tanker and two hostages and tried to break into the venue.

Marine police immediately dispatched naval vessels to counter and capture the "terrorists".

They practiced various tactics including encircling and pursuit maneuvers, blocking tactics and dive-and-search, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

Luo Gan, the top law and order official of the Communist Party of China (CPC), urged public security departments to intensify anti-terrorist efforts to ensure a safe and successful 2008 Olympics.

Luo, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, said after watching the exercise that public security control systems should strike hard against various criminal activities .

"We should take the opportunity of Olympics to improve security services for Chinese society," Luo said.

State Councilor Zhou Yongkang said the marine police should redoubled their efforts to safeguard coastal safety and stability and boost the development of coastal areas.

The marine police will be responsible for the safety of the 2008 Olympic sailing competition, which will take place in Qingdao from Aug. 9 to 21. About 400 sailors will compete for gold medals in 11 Olympic sailing events.

The army, navy and air forces of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) also held a joint drill in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and Inner Mongolia and Qingdao on June 29.

Codenamed "Olympic Security-07", the exercise was the PLA's first security drill in preparation for 2008 Olympics.

The military bureau of the Beijing Olympic Games security command center, a security unit of the PLA consisting of personnel from the army, navy and air forces, was set up to safeguard the Beijing Olympic Games.

The security unit would mainly deal with non-traditional threats during the games, particularly biochemical and nuclear terror attacks, and is responsible for air protection of all arenas, and maritime safety of coastal venues, according to the Olympic security plan.

(Xinhua News Agency July 14, 2007)