Chinese climbers carrying the Olympic torch were camped just over a kilometres from the summit of Mount Everest today and weather conditions look good for the final assault, officials said.
Bad weather has denied mountaineers the chance to take the flame to the top of Everest for nearly a fortnight, depriving China of what it had hoped would be the defining moment of the torch relay ahead of the Beijing Games in August.
The summit of Mount Everest, the world's tallest peak
But calm, sunny weather over the last three days have buoyed the spirits of officials who sounded more optimistic than ever that the flame would be burning at the 8,848-metre peak before the weekend.
"I don't know exactly where the climbing torch bearers are," Zhang Zhijian, spokesman for the climbing team, told a media briefing. "But before I came here today I heard they had renovated the camp at 7,790 metres. Since the weather is very nice, I think we will have good news in the coming days."
The Everest flame is separate from the main Olympic torch that arrived in mainland China on Sunday after a protest-marred international leg which embarrassed officials and sparked a wave of nationalistic fervour at home.
Organisers have kept plans for the Everest ascent a closely guarded secret for fear that it may also be blighted by protests by pro-Tibet activists. Both Nepal and China have sealed off the area.Communist-ruled China has invested billions of dollars on staging the Olympics, eager to project the image of a modern and vibrant country.
The heavy snowfall last weekend was a setback for the project and destroyed at least some of the three camps climbers will be using from Advanced Base Camp (ABC) at 6,500 metres to the jumping off point for the summit at 8,300 metres.
Mr Zhang said the selection of the few members of the team who would summit the world's highest mountain with the flame was ongoing and that ethnicity and sex would be taken into account.
"China is a big family with 56 ethnic minorities," he said. "All the Chinese people want to see the flame on top of the summit. We will take notice of the ethnic origin and sex of the climbers in equal weight with strength and fitness."
Of the 31 climbers in the team, 22 are ethnic Tibetans, eight Han Chinese and one is from the Tujia minority, which lives in a mountainous area in southwest China. Three of the climbers are women, two Tibetan and one Han.
Anti-Chinese demonstrations disrupted the international stretch of the longest torch relay in Olympic history after the March 14th riots in Lhasa sparked off unrest in Tibetan areas of western China.