DOHA, Qatar - The Asian Games are winding down, and Mohammad Al Khatib is starting to worry about going home. It won't be easy. The karate athlete got here two weeks late because of the closure of a checkpoint on the road out of Gaza, and he's not sure he'll have any better luck on the return trip.

Japan's Eriko Arakawa, left, and North Korea's Kim Tan Sil battle for the ball during the final of the Women's soccer competition between Japan and North Korea at the Asian Games in Doha, Qatar Wednesday Dec. 13, 2006. [Reuters]

"We have all kinds of difficulties," he said. "I'm glad I was able to come, to try to win a medal for Palestine, but it's very hard to concentrate."

For many athletes at the Asian Games, sport must often take a back seat to the bigger realities of life that include war and suicide bombings.

Asia is both the world's most populous continents and one of its most conflict-ridden. At its biggest sporting event after the Olympics, the region's many conflicts are never long forgotten.

"We held the games here in the Middle East to show that it is not all crisis in this region," said Shiek Saoud bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani, secretary general of the Qatar Olympic Committee. "Doha is one of the safest places in the world."

Organizers in this oil-rich nation on the Persian Gulf, which has its eye on hosting the Olympic Games in 2016, have gone out of their way to ensure that message gets across. For the first time ever, all 45 countries and regions that are members of the Asian Olympic Committee are competing in the games.

The Asian Games, first held in 1951 with 11 nations sending teams to New Delhi, India, have never fallen prey to the large-scale boycotts that marred the Moscow or Los Angeles Olympics.

One reason is because Israel is not here.

Though surrounded by countries that are participating in the games, Israel hasn't competed at the Asian Games since the 1974 Games at Tehran. The Arab nations threatened to boycott its continued presence. The Israelis now compete with the Europeans, where they are more welcome.

As has become the norm at big international events, Taiwan is here - but under the assumed name of Chinese Taipei, lest Beijing object. Taiwan got the boot in 1974 and returned as Chinese Taipei in 1990.

Myanmar and North Korea have sent teams, though their ruling regimes are international pariahs. Tiny East Timor, whose capital has been wracked by violence and looting, has a 15-member team. Nepal, whose ruling party just began negotiating a peace treaty to end a decade-long communist insurgency, has even won three bronze medals.

Politics affect the athletes in different ways.

For Al Khatib, it means little opportunity to compete in karate abroad, or even against other athletes in the Palestinian territories.

"We really weren't able to get the team together before this competition. As a coach, I see this as a good opportunity to get them out of that atmosphere," said Khaled Owda, who lives in the West Bank. "But this is our fate."

Things are looking up in Afghanistan.

"The situation is getting better," said team official Ghulam Jailani Ghuroob. "But many of our athletes still have to train abroad. We don't have any facilities. Our people are poor. Athletes train at their homes."

Being a high-profile athlete or coach in Iraq, meanwhile, can be fatal.

Iraq Olympic Committee chairman Ahmed al-Hijiya and 30 other people were taken hostage in July and still have not been released. The bullet-riddled body of the chairman of one of country's leading soccer clubs was discovered last weekend.

An Iraqi international soccer referee was abducted this fall. Ghanim Ghudayer, a popular 22-year-old soccer player and member of the Iraqi Olympic team, was kidnapped in September and has not been heard from since.

And Iraq's national soccer coach, Akram Ahmed Salman, resigned in July after receiving death threats. The national wrestling coach, a Sunni, was killed around the same time in a Shiite district of Baghdad.

Despite all that, Iraq's under-23 squad has reached the final at the Asian Games, upsetting South Korea in the semifinals.

The tragedy in Iraq prompted a plea from International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge to those who have taken athletes and sports officials captive.

"Let them return home to their families so that they can work for youth and peace in their country," he said.

In other countries, crises have evolved as their athletes have tried to focus on upholding the national honor.

Lebanon's team has come here amid growing unrest in its capital, where hundreds of thousands of demonstrators have gathered for protests aimed at winning more political power for Hezbollah and its allies and bringing down the Western-backed government.

"It's a very nice break, we can forget about everything," said Ali Younes, who was also here to compete in karate. "But we always think about what will happen when we go back."