About 34,000 soldiers from China's armed forces are directly involved in Olympic security tasks, a military officer in charge of Games' safety said on Friday.

The military has also deployed 74 jets, 48 helicopters and 33 vessels, as well as radar systems, ground-to-air missiles, chemical and engineering units, Tian Yixiang, director of the Military Bureau of the Security Command Center for the Games, said.

The scale of military involvement is "sufficient and reasonable", and lower than that during the Athens Games, Tian told reporters at an unprecedented Ministry of National Defense press briefing held at a combat unit headquarters in the suburbs of Beijing.

For the first time, the People's Liberation Army (PLA), which marked its 81st anniversary on Friday, allowed more than 100 domestic and overseas reporters into the barracks and facilities of the 6th Armed Division of the Beijing Military Command, an 8,000-strong force of artillery and tanks guarding the nation's capital.

The division, the first PLA unit to be fully equipped with home-made tanks, armored vehicles and artillery, is among the country's elite land forces.

Although most of the division's staff were on annual training sessions elsewhere, reporters covering the Olympics, including 48 foreign journalists from 30 agencies, caught a rare glimpse of its main combat armaments and showcases of large-scale military exercises at the camp in Nankou town, Changping district in northern Beijing.

It is the largest group of foreign reporters the troop has received since its opening to overseas visitors in 1971, division commander Chen Xuewu said.

In the past the division "only allowed visitors from socialist countries, but now we are open to delegations from all countries that have diplomatic ties with China", he said.

Chen's division will be deployed "at the necessary time, to the necessary place and resolve the necessary issues", he said.

The PLA plays a supporting role in Games security, in the face of multiple terrorist threats, headed by "East Turkistan" terrorist groups and other separatist forces, Tian said, adding that the army is "confident and capable" of ensuring safety, without which a successful Olympics is impossible.

At the same time, he stressed that efforts to guarantee the safety of the Games will go hand in hand with the pursuit of a festive environment at the sports gala.

Defense ministry spokesman Hu Changming called the meeting "a sign of (China's) military transparency", and attributed the foreign media's contrary attitude to a lack of understanding.

He refrained from directly responding to rumors that Beijing will withdraw all missiles targeted toward Taiwan as a sign of goodwill, but said peace is the common aspiration of all soldiers, and PLA troops are happy with the recent progress in cross-Straits relations.

Some 138,000 PLA soldiers and armed police, as well as 4,688 helicopter flights have been dispatched to areas devastated by the May 12 earthquake, assisting in the evacuation of 1.4 million people and transporting 1.43 million tons of relief materials, Hu said.

The PLA has also sent more than 10,000 peacekeepers to participate in 18 UN peacekeeping missions, making China the largest contributor to the effort.

Currently, 1,957 Chinese peacekeepers are deployed in 10 areas, as well as working with the UN peacekeeping department, Hu said.

(China Daily August 2, 2008)