Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (left) and Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games President Liu Qi attend the opening ceremony of the SportAccord international sports convention Tuesday, April 24, 2007 in Beijing, the host city of the 2008 Summer Olympics. [AP]

Chance of showers during the 2008 Beijing Olympics: 50 percent. But Chinese meteorologists have a plan to bring sunshine.

The meteorologists say they can force rain in the days before the Olympics, through a process known as cloud-seeding, to clean the air and ensure clear skies. China has been tinkering with artificial rainmaking for decades, but whether it works is a matter of debate among scientists.

Weather patterns for the past 30 years indicate there is a 50 percent chance of rain for both the opening ceremony on Aug. 8, 2008 and the closing ceremony two weeks later, said Wang Yubin, an engineer with the Beijing Meteorological Bureau.

The forced rain could also help clean Beijing's polluted air, said Wang Jianjie, another meteorologist with the bureau.

"When conditions permit, we will artificially increase rainfall," she said. "Rainfall is a way to naturally clean the air."

In 2003, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences questioned the science behind cloud-seeding as "too weak." But China frequently uses artificial rainmaking in the drought-plagued north.

China was very experienced in cloud seeding, said Wang Yubin. "We are pretty confident that we can effectively reduce rainfall in a small area."

Last May, Beijing said having generated rainfall to clear the air and streets following the worst dust storm in a decade.

Technicians with the Beijing Weather Modification Office said they fired seven rocket shells containing 163 cigarette-size sticks of silver iodide over the city's skies, provoking a chemical reaction in clouds that forced four-tenths of an inch of rain.

Wang Jianjie, deputy head of the Beijing Meteorological Bureau, pledged to improve their weather forecasting skills this year for the "Good Luck Beijing" Olympic test events. They will rehearse the whole package of services this August.

"We will try our best to provide accurate forecasts for each Olympic venue either in Beijing or in other co-host cities," she said.

Hundreds of experienced weathermen will be "loaned" to the Beijing Meteorological Bureau to cope with the Olympics, she said.

Despite measures to keep the rain at bay, Beijing still has to keep its fingers crossed - as Wang Yubin said: "God bless Beijing".