New York: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has informed the Chinese government that he will not attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing in August.
Marie Okabe said Beijing was told of the decision "some months ago". She said the move was a result of scheduling issues and was unrelated to the widespread call to boycott the opening ceremony to protest China's alleged human rights abuses in Tibet.
The decision comes a day after British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he would not attend and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper also decided against attending the opening ceremony.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has already decided to stay away from the Games' opening ceremony.
French President Sarkozy is considering not attending and there's a great deal of pressure on President Bush to boycott the ceremony as well.
