The schedule to complete preparations for the 2004 Athens Olympics remains "quite tight" but the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Thursday it was generally happy with progress.

Athens organisers (ATHOC) president Gianna Angelopoulos gave a report to the IOC's executive board on Thursday reviewing August's test events in many sports and construction progress.

"We have noted many, many very positive developments," IOC director-general Francois Carrard told a news conference. "The test results were quite good, but the schedule remains quite tight.

"Nevertheless the general appreciation was that a lot of positive things have been accomplished."

The IOC's director for Olympic Games, Gilbert Felli, said the sports federations and athletes had praised the facilities in Athens during the test events and added that "the tests came out very positively".

But turning to the Turin 2006 Winter Games, Felli said there were several areas that could be improved.

On the marketing side, promotion of the Games was not yet good enough and the organisers had been asked to "deliver a better message" to attract other sponsors.

An agreement on operational issues has not been finalised with state television company RAI and neither had a marketing agreement.

But Felli said the IOC was happy with the progress of construction in Turin even if some delays had been experienced at the speed skating arena.

Looking ahead to the Beijing Games in 2008, Carrard said things were going very smoothly.

"It is perfect progress, we don't see any problems," he said.