The unusually warm winter has left little snow on the ground for the upcoming World Winter University Games, but organizers said Monday the events will be held without any great problems.

The situation was almost the opposite last year when the same slopes hosted the Winter Olympic Games in near perfect conditions.

At present the only slope with insufficient snow is the one used for the snowboarding events but organizers said that they expected to resolve this in time.

The Winter Universiade will run from January 17 to 27 and see the participation of some 2,500 university students from sixty countries and regions.

A total of 11 sports will be represented at the games: the biathlon, Nordic combined, curling, ice hockey, figure skating, ski jumping, Alpine and cross country skiing, long and short track speed skating and snowboarding.

(Xinhua News Agency January 9, 2007)