Olympics-Haze over Beijing two days before Games start

(refiles to fix typo in first paragraph)

By Lindsay Beck

BEIJING, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Haze settled over Beijing on Wednesday, two days before the start of an Olympic Games that has been beset by worries over health-damaging pollution, but experts were predicting clear skies for the opening ceremony.

Cloudy skies were forecast for Wednesday and Thursday and Beijing's Environmental Protection Bureau showed that levels of particulate matter were within the "fairly good" range.

But humid, still weather and temperatures forecast to reach 34 degrees Celsius, meant stubborn smog hung over the city, which has already pulled millions of cars from the roads and suspended factory production to ensure a better Games environment. For athletes of endurance events, the smog could pose a major problem and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has said it might reschedule events if the pollution was too bad. (For more Olympic stories visit our multimedia website "Road to Beijing" here; and see our blog at blogs.reuters.com/china)