Rehearsals for the opening ceremony of 2008 Beijing Olympic Games will begin in August, said a senior official of the Organizing Committee for the Beijing Olympic Games (BOCOG) on Monday.

"The opening ceremony of Beijing Olympics, which draws much attention from the world, has already had a first draft and will begin preliminary run in August," said Jiang Xiaoyu, executive vice president of BOCOG.

"Everything is going on smoothly and we surely will have a wonderful opening ceremony as well as a good closing ceremony," added Jiang.

China's best-known film maker Zhang Yimou acts as the director of the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2008 Olympic Games. Hollywood director Steven Spielberg serves as an artistic consultant along with Australian Ric Birch, director of the highly successful opening and closing ceremonies at the Sydney Games in 2000, and Yves Pepin, president of French company ECA2.

(Xinhua News Agency June 12, 2007)