The success of Beijing's 2008 Olympic Games rests as much on showing good manners as on the quality of facilities and athletic performances, China's senior delegate to the International Olympic Committee said.

"It's the rude bus passenger or a witness to an accident who fails to lend a hand that stands in our way of staging an impressive Olympiad," He Zhenliang said on Monday in Shanghai.

"People are talking about showcasing our culture and the country's economic power through the extravaganza, but I think good manners should be put at the top of our agenda," He was quoted as saying by the Shanghai Daily newspaper on Tuesday.

Beijing residents' brusque, sometimes crude, manners are frequently noted by visitors, and the city hopes to counter such impressions with a courtesy campaign aimed at discouraging widespread spitting, jaywalking and line-jumping.

China has invested enormous national prestige in holding a successful Games, with many Chinese seeing in that a validation of their nation's rapid rise to global influence and acceptance.

Along with improving public manners, He, the honorary president of the Chinese Olympic Committee, said holding the Games could help China raise its generally low level of popular participation in sports, especially in schools.

"The Olympiad can't provide a solution for all these problems once and for all, but at least it gives us an opportunity," he said.