Fennell rushing to Delhi

NEW DELHI (AP):

The Commonwealth Games chief rushed to New Delhi seeking emergency talks with the prime minister over India's chaotic preparations, as two world champion competitors withdrew and England warned that problems with the athletes' village have left the sporting event on a "knife-edge".

No national teams have yet pulled out, but Scotland and Canada announced yesterday they would delay their travel to the Indian capital, where the athletes' village - said to be incomplete and soiled with human excrement - was supposed to open today.

Indian officials insisted that facilities would be ready and immaculate for the October 3 Games opening, despite wide-ranging concerns about unfinished buildings, construction collapses and an outbreak of dengue fever.

The Games, which brings together more than 7,000 athletes from the 71 countries and territories from the former British empire every four years, was supposed to showcase India as an emerging power in the international community. Instead, it has become a major embarrassment.

The city has had seven years to prepare, though very little work was done until 2008. New Delhi has been a frenzy of activity in recent weeks, as it struggles to meet the deadline - only adding to concern that haste could lead to shortcuts in construction of key facilities.

On Tuesday, a 90-yard pedestrian bridge collapsed at the main stadium, injuring 27 construction workers, five critically. Yesterday, part of a drop ceiling at the weightlifting venue collapsed, officials said.

Need to 'get it fixed'

Compounding concerns over the readiness of the Games facilities are security fears after the Sunday shooting of two tourists outside one of the city's top attractions.

An Islamic militant group took responsibility for the shooting.

Commonwealth Games Federation president, Mike Fennell, is due to arrive in New Delhi today and has requested a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, federation chief executive Mike Hooper told The Associated Press.

Hooper said the problems with the Games preparations had prompted Fennell to rush to New Delhi far earlier than planned. His emergency trip "emphasises that this is an important issue and we obviously need to engage at the highest level to get it fixed", Hooper said.

International sports officials have called the Games village unfinished, dirty, hobbled by numerous infrastructural problems and even "unsafe and unfit for human habitation".

"It's just filthy. ... It hasn't been cleaned," said Hooper.

In addition to shoddy conditions inside and outside the buildings, there also are problems with plumbing, wiring, furnishings, Internet access and cellphone coverage. Hooper also confirmed reports of excrement found in the village.

"I've never come across this before," Hooper said of the last-minute preparations. "It's very frustrating to see the delays and the fact that we've had to come right down to the wire.

"We've been complaining about the delivery of the venues for nearly two years and the constant delays," he said.