America's National Basketball Association commissioner David Stern says Beijing will be capable of hosting regular season NBA games before 2008 Summer Olympics.

He says these may be in a fashion similar to the opening games the league has staged in Japan.

Mr Stern arrived in Shanghai on Monday night and took a group of former NBA players on a sightseeing tour, including NBA Hall of Fame players Clyde Drexler and Bill Russell.

He says the Rockets and the association is lucky to have picked-up Yao Ming as he represents a huge market of 1.3 billion people.

The exhibition games between Kings and Rockets is the first to be played in China, as the world's top basketball league seeks to expand its fan base in the world's most populous nation.

(CRI October 13, 2004)