Media in dark as flame awaits Everest ascent

By Nick Mulvenney

EVEREST BASE CAMP, China (Reuters) - China was tight-lipped about the progress of a special Olympic flame up Mount Everest on Monday, despite the arrival of international media at the foot of the world's tallest mountain.

The ascent of Everest is the highlight of a torch parade that has been dogged by protests and counter-protests over Tibet on its journey around all five inhabited continents to raise the curtain on August's Beijing Games.

The Everest flame is separate from the globetrotting torch, which passed through the streets of the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, on Monday and was due to be paraded in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday.

Determined that nothing will spoil this special leg, the authorities had only cryptic answers to questions on just where the flame was and when it would reach the Himalayan summit.

"I can confirm that the lantern with the flame is in the hands of the mountaineers but I cannot tell you whether there are climbers on the mountain yet," said Shao Shiwei, deputy director of the media department of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games.

"There is not only one flame, there are many flames," he said. "There are many back-up flames and they did not tell us which one is going to go to the peak. We are working with prudence because the whole world is watching."

The intended sending-off ceremony at base camp was cancelled last week because of inclement weather, officials said.

A delegation from China's General Administration of Sport has already toured Tibet -- where protests against Chinese rule erupted last month -- to check preparations for the torch's climb 8,848 meters (29,030 feet) above sea level.