BEIJING, Feb. 16 -- "Beijing promises not to set a double standard for Games ticket prices", Beijing vice mayor Liu Jingmin said on an Olympic themed-program yesterday that aired on Beijing Television.

"If Chinese and Westerners are charged different prices, it will not honor the Olympic spirit."

After more than one year of research, including an online survey, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG), instituted the final ticket prices based on how much people can pay, said Liu, who is also the vice executive president of BOCOG.

Liu further explained the conclusion drawn from in-depth research on both urban and rural consumption levels was to adopt the relatively low ticket price system during the Beijing Games.

"The amount of the 2008 competition fares less than 100 yuan (12.5 U.S. dollars) accounts for the 58 percent of the total," Liu said," compared to the tickets fee of Athens and Sydney Olympic Games, 2008 fares could be cheaper.

When asked if westerners with higher incomes would be charged more, Liu said "that's absolutely forbidden, it goes against the Olympic spirit of justice, equality and openness to all."

More work should be done to guarantee the fair distribution of low-price Olympic tickets

The long-awaited ticket prices for the 2008 Beijing Olympics were published on Nov.29, 2006 on the official site of the Games and the prices for seats at the opening ceremony are as low as 200 yuan (25.50 U.S. dollars). More than 58 per cent of all tickets for open sale will cost 100 yuan (13 U.S. dollars) or less, with the lowest price being 30 yuan (4 U.S. dollars).

The BOCOG will also offer student tickets, which account for about 14 per cent of all domestically available tickets and cost merely 5 yuan (0.64 U.S. dollars) for preliminaries and 10 yuan (1.28 U.S. dollars) for finals.