Ascent produces triumphant image that China has longed for

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BEIJING - Cheering mountaineers raised the Olympic torch at the summit of the world's highest peak yesterday, producing the triumphant image that China has longed for in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics.

The final ascent along Mount Everest's icy ridge was broadcast live and provided organizers with a dramatic counterpoint to the pro-Tibet protests that marked parts of the torch's international relay.

"One World, One Dream," team captain Nyima Cering, a Tibetan, yelled as his torch was lit a few yards from the summit -- the slogan for the Beijing Olympics.

The 19-member team, dressed in red parkas emblazoned with Olympic logos, broke camp at 8,300 metres before dawn and reached the top of the 8,850-metre mountain a little more than six hours later.

The flame was passed up a line of five torchbearers to a Tibetan woman named Cering Wangmo on the summit. The other team members unfurled Chinese and Olympic flags as a Tibetan prayer flag lined the path and fluttered in the wind.

The jubilant group clustered, shouting in Chinese "We made it," and "Beijing welcomes you."

The emotional moment, shown on national TV, displayed teamwork and national pride among the Tibetan and ethnic Han Chinese mountaineers -- and none of the anti-government sentiment or ethnic tensions that fuelled recent protests in Lhasa and other Tibetan areas of western China.