On Wednesday the UN General Assembly adopted unanimously a resolution calling for a truce during the Beijing Olympic Games next year.

The resolution, submitted by China and cosponsored by 186 nations, urges member states to observe the Olympic Truce individually and collectively during the Games of the 29th Olympiad in Beijing and the following Para-Olympic Games.

The 192-member body unanimously approved the resolution entitled: "Building a peaceful and better world through sport and the Olympic ideal."

It urges member states to observe the truce during the Beijing Olympic Games which will take place from 8 to 24 August 2008, and the subsequent Para-Olympic Games in Beijing which will take place from 6 to 17 September 2008.

It welcomes the decision of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to mobilize international sports organizations and the National Olympic Committees of the member states to undertake concrete actions at the local, national, regional and world levels to promote and strengthen a culture of peace and harmony based on the spirit of the Olympic Truce.

It also calls on all member states to cooperate with the IOC in its efforts to use sport as an instrument to promote peace, dialogue and reconciliation in areas of conflict during and beyond the Olympic Games.

The Olympic Truce originated from the Olympic truce treaty passed by Greek city-states participating in the ancient Olympic Games.

The IOC revived the concept of the Olympic Truce in 1992 and relayed it to the United Nations. Since 1993, the UN General Assembly has appealed for the truce by adopting a resolution one year before each inauguration of the Olympic Games.

"With a history of over 1,000 years, the treaty represents a peace accord that has been observed for the longest time in history," said Liu Qi, president of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Beijing Olympiad, to the assembly.

The resolution not only captures the "quintessential elements of the previous resolutions but also features the three main concepts that are at the core of the Beijing Olympic Games, namely, 'Green Olympics, High-Tech Olympics and People's Olympics,' and their unified vision to achieve harmonious development of society," Liu said.

"Sport unites the principles that the Olympic Movement holds dear -- education, sustainability, nondiscrimination, universality, humanism and solidarity," IOC President Jacques Rogge told the General Assembly.

"These are also the principles at the core of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. These are the principles that drive far-reaching social change," Rogge said.

The 2008 Beijing Summer Games will reach one-fifth of the world 's population in China alone, Rogge said.

"It is predicted that 4 billion people -- the most ever -- will watch the Beijing Games," Rogge said. "This is a wonderful opportunity for China and the world to witness Olympic values in action -- to see first-hand the excellence, friendship and respect that sport brings to life, to witness the harmony, understanding and peace that sport can engender."

(Xinhua News Agency November 1, 2007)