BEIJING (AP) A group of planning experts from the International Olympic Committee arrived in Beijing on Wednesday for a three-day visit to help the city prepare for the 2008 Games.

The team is made up of members of the IOC's Coordination Commission for the Beijing Games and experts in a variety of fields. It will be headed by commission chairman Hein Verbruggen.

The team will focus on goals for the next six months and provide expertise on how they should be fulfilled by Beijing's Olympic organizing committee, IOC sports director Gilbert Felli said at a news conference.

It will be "a full program of transfer of knowledge," he said. The experts will examine areas including construction, general infrastructure, environment, security, finance and budget.

IOC officials said planners face different challenges for each Olympics.

"Every game is different because of different environments, different cities. The times are changing and there are different technologies and solutions," IOC director general Francois Carrard said.

He added there are some core problems each faces such as accommodations, transportation, technology and cost.

"We need to build on past experiences and draw from those lessons," Carrard said.

In a visit in April, the coordination commission gave Beijing resounding approval in three major areas of preparation - hotel accommodation, sports venues and marketing - and praised officials for sticking very close to promises they made when bidding for the game last year.

Beijing won the right to play host to the 2008 Games last year after years of debate over whether its human rights policies should prevent it from being an Olympic city.

Both Beijing and China itself are hoping the Games will showcase a modern China and its progressive capital, and a building boom partially fueled by Olympic planning is under way across the city.

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