Athletes from South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea marched behind one flag in a rare show of solidarity as the 22nd Summer Universiade Games opened yesterday in accord with its "Dream of Unity" theme.

Kabul medical student Najibullah Ghalib and Humayoun Azizi made up the Afghanistan contingent, while eight Iraqi athletes were among the other 170 national dele-gations that paraded into opening ceremonies at Daegu Stadium.

At the rear of the procession, the Koreans entered - many linking arms held above their heads - behind a blue and white Korean Peninsula flag, which was adopted for the Sydney 2000 Olympics and used at last year's Asiad in Busan.

The DPRK backed down from its boycott threat earlier in the week and had 125 athletes and officials marching alongside 198 South Kor-eans to the beat of traditional drums.

The Korean group got an enthu-siastic welcome from the estimated 40,000 spectators - including 300 cheerleaders from Pyongyang who all waved Peninsula flags.

Security was heightened around all Games' venues, transport and team accommodation following reports that the event could be a target for chemical terror attacks.

Competition has started in basketball, soccer and volleyball and a wider program was set to begin today, with preliminaries in tennis and the first medals on offer in fencing and taekwondo.

Daegu has attracted the biggest participation for a Universiade, with more than 7,000 athletes and officials registered. China, which ended the United States' decadelong domina-nce by topping the medal standings in Beijing in 2001, sent 229 athletes in a bid to retain its No 1 ranking.

The defending champion US women opened their basketball campaign with a 62-56 win yesterday over Hungary.

The Italians were shaping as top medal contenders, demolishing Thailand 94-49 ahead of today's showdown with the Americans.

In other women's preliminaries, it was: Russia 77, Mexico 59; China 87, Japan 74; Ireland 75, Canada 68; and the Czech Republic 66, Slovenia 56.

China, men's basketball silver medalists at the last Universiade when Houston Rockets center Yao Ming was on the roster, opened with a 92-72 win over Turkey, with Chen Ke scoring 28 points.

In other men's matches, it was: Russia 82, South Africa 56, Japan 57, Ukraine 53, Mexico 99, China's Taiwan 81, Australia 90, the Czech Republic 87; Estonia 96, South Korea 87; and Bulgaria 123, China's Hong Kong 54.

Volleyball opened with a 2-hour, 15-minute struggle between the US and Ukraine, with former winning 23-25, 24-26, 25-19, 25-20 and 27-25.

Canada, France, South Korea, Italy, Germany, Ukraine and Turkey had straight sets wins in other matches, while Denmark edged DPRK 25-22, 23-25, 25-17, 24-26, 15-9.

In women's volleyball, Russia, Ukraine, China, France and New Zealand had straight sets wins and China's Taiwan beat Japan 3-1.