Koreas to raise unity flag at Doha

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Doha, Qatar: North and South Korean sports officials met on Thursday to discuss fielding a joint team for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and marching under a 'unification flag' at the Asian Games opening ceremonies.

The two sides met at a hotel, South Korean Olympic Committee officials said. Officials refused to comment on the outcome of their ongoing talks, which were to continue on Friday.

The two Koreas were expected to march together at Asian Games opening ceremony, but will not compete together. They have marched together at major sports events seven times starting at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, but have not sent unified teams.

Many details of the plan for Beijing remain to be ironed out, including whether North Korean athletes should be allotted a fixed number of slots on the team. The North supports that plan, saying that the South has an advantage because its athletes have better training facilities and more opportunity to compete in international events.

South Korean officials had planned to hold a news conference following Thursday's talks, but later cancelled it. "At present, the atmosphere is much better than at anytime in the past,'' Kim Jung-kil, head of the Korea Olympic Committee said to the South Korean news agency Yonhap.

The plans for the Koreas to march and complete together, which were initially suggested by the North, were nearly scuttled by a growing rift over North Korea's first test of a nuclear weapon. The October 9 test has raised tensions throughout the region, and brought tough sanctions down on the North under a UN Security Council resolution.

While imposing sanctions of its own, Seoul has tried to take a relatively conciliatory position toward its northern neighbour. South Korea's unification ministry announced last week that it had accepted the plan to march together for the AsianGames, and Korean media have reported that the flag-bearers will be a South Korean men's basketball player and an undisclosed female athlete from the North.

The Asian Games runs through December 15.