The Chinese capital is recruiting college students to reinforce the police forces in an effort to secure the Olympic Games to be held in 2008.

About 400 college students, including 88 females, who will graduate this summer, participated in a physical strength test on Monday held by the Beijing Special Police Corps.

Most of the candidates major in criminal investigation or physical culture.

Those who pass the physical test will take psychological and cultural examinations, and final winners will be enlisted into the city's police forces, said Wang Zhaoguang, an officer with the special police corps.

The officer, however, did not say how many students the special corps needs.

The recruitment is set to be finished in early July, and the selected graduates will receive professional trainings on driving, shooting, climbing and other skills to strengthen their competence in anti-terror, violence control and dealing with other emergencies, said Wang.

It is the first time that university students to be enlisted in the special police forces in Beijing, a move to boost the city's overall capacity of safeguarding social security and creating a safe environment for the Olympics, the official said.

Beijing plans to add 2,000 police officers to meet security requirements for the grand sports event. Various of plans have been worked out for the purpose, focusing on the prevention of terrors.

Beijing suffers a serious deficiency in police backup. The additional recruitment has got official ratification and will help ensure security during the Olympics, Qiang Wei, head of the Beijing Olympic Security Coordination Group and deputy secretary of the Beijing municipal committee of the Communist Party of China, said at an earlier time.

A special team in charge of security for the sports event has started operation with 68 experts offering consultant service.