The spectacular opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics has impressed the whole world, Singapore's Minister Mentor and founding father Lee Kuan Yew said.

"They had absolute possession of the sticks, which I think must have impressed everybody there and around the world," Lee was quoted as saying by Sunday's English-language daily The Straits Times when recalling how the drummers in the opening segment in Beijing performed in complete unison.

"Three billion people must have seen the effort that they made and the discipline that they showed," he said.

He also praised the general appearance of Beijing. "The greenery, the smoothness of the roads, they got flowers and potted plants to bloom just in time and whole kilometers of it...That was a major effort," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency August 10, 2008)