Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu yesterday denied a Geneva-based rights group's report saying about 1.5 million people would be displaced in Beijing because of the 2008 Olympic Games.

"The figure is groundless," Jiang said. A total of 6,037 households have been shifted since 2002 for the construction of nine Olympic projects.

"Those people have received compensation in cash and have been rehabilitated properly, she said, and stressed that "not a single family has been forced to move out of Beijing."

(China Daily 06/06/2007 page2)