Olympic flame reaches Mount Everest Summit
'Pakistan Times' Wire Service

BEIJING: Chinese climbers carrying the Olympic flame reached the summit of Mount Everest on Thursday, state television showed, in an historic moment for China exactly three months ahead of the Beijing Games.

Female climber Cering Wangmo reached the top of the world's highest mountain bearing a special extreme-altitude torch amid grand celebrations in China.

"Beijing welcomes you!" joyous team members said as they stood at the 8,848-metre (29,028-foot) summit, with the event broadcast on national television.

Others shouted: "We are on top of the world!", and "One World, One Dream!", the official slogan of the Beijing Olympics.

The team halted just four metres below the summit to light the torch, with five climbers then relaying it the final meters to the top, where others had already gathered to unfurl small banners showing the Olympic rings.

The team had set out six hours earlier for a final push to the peak in an event that had been delayed for about two weeks due to adverse weather.●