Beijing has officially acknowledged that it has tightened visa procedures ahead of the Olympic Games, APreported. Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said that the approvalprocess has become "more strict" and authorities were now "moreserious" with the visa approval procedures, add that the stricterpolicies would continue for "a period of time." Qin said that the newpolicies were made in accordance with the practice in past Olympics andinternational norms. The Chinese government had previously denied thatvisa policies had been changed, despite reports from travel agents inHong Kong that tourist and business visas were becoming increasinglydifficult to obtain.