Hundreds of thousands of document files and electronic material recording the Beijing Olympics and Paralympics have been transferred to the city's archives as "invaluable cultural heritage" items, but they are not open to the public yet.

Beijing Archives Bureau Director Chen Leren said the facility had received more than 128,000 files of papers, 126,000 Olympic and Paralympic pictures, nearly 10,000 video and magnetic tapes and 93 G of digital files from the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) as of the end of October.

Among the items were policies, regulations, technical handbooks, official letters, photos and 4,165 videotapes and compact discs containing nearly 5,000 hours of video files of the two sports events, he said.

"Samples of the torch, gold and silver and bronze medals and licensed Games' commodities have also been put into the archives," Chen said.

More than 200,000 volumes of files of competitions held at venues outside the capital had been collected as well, he said, adding the archives had started digitalizing these documents.

As for public access, Ma Xiaozhen, an archive official who also worked for BOCOG, told Xinhua that no timetable had yet been decided.

"We are very careful about original materials. Intellectual property issues are our major concern, and we have relevant regulations," she said.

Under the Implementation Measures of the Archives Law, files concerning the economy, science, technology and culture can be opened to the public at any time.

It specifies that "files created after 1949, if not related to national defense, foreign affairs and public and state security, should be open to the public 30 years after their creation."