Kofi Annan backs Olympic truce

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has called on warring parties throughout the world to observe the Olympic truce during next month's Winter Games in Turin.

Speaking after a meeting with International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge at the organisation's headquarters in Lausanne, Annan said the truce offered a chance for combatants to re-assess their motives.

"The period of the Olympic Games is obviously not long enough for us to believe that we can use it to establish lasting peace," Annan told reporters.

"It is however a chance for protagonists to look around, see how they are destroying their communities and take the chance to explore other options."

Introduced into the modern Olympics in 1991, the truce calls for the suspension of fighting for the duration of the Games.

The truce was used to allow athletes from the former Yugoslavia to take part in the 1992 Barcelona Games without having to declare any national allegiance.

Less encouragingly, the truce has failed to stop atrocities from occurring at the Games themselves - most notably in 1972 at Munich when 11 Israeli athletes were killed and the 1996 Atlanta bombing in which one woman died.

On three occasions - in 1916, 1940 and 1944 - the Games were cancelled due to war.