Survey finds protests, pollution hurt Games "interest"

MILAN (Reuters) - Concerns about China's human rights record and its polluted air have dampened public interest around the world in the Beijing Olympics, a research group said.

The survey by Sport+Markt -- based on 1,000 telephone interviews with people aged between 16 and 69 per country -- showed the level of "interest" in the Olympics had decreased across the world over the last four years.

"The event in Tibet this spring as well as protests regarding the torch relay was a worldwide negative campaign for the Olympics in Beijing," Hartmut Zastrow, executive director at Sport+Markt, said in a note released on Friday.

In Britain, enthusiasm for the Games slumped to about a third from 52 percent compared to the Athens Games four years ago.

"Interest" in the Games also dropped in Germany (58 percent), France (45 percent), Spain (40 percent) and Italy (56 percent) as well as Japan, China, Russia and the United States.

(Reporting by Antonella Ciancio; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

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