BEIJING —  A blacktop road leading to the Mount Everest base camp was completed Wednesday and will be used when the Olympic torch is taken to the peak of the world's tallest mountain, a state news agency reported.

Workers spent 10 months widening the 67-mile road, evening the surface and installing guardrails at dangerous spots, the Xinhua News Agency said.

"The upgraded highway ... will provide a safe path for drivers, tourists and mountaineers, and facilitate torchbearers (taking) the Olympic flame to the top of the world," the report said.

The Beijing Olympics torch relay is the most ambitious in history _ an 85,000-mile, 130-day route crossing five continents. The ascent to Everest's 29,035-foot summit is considered a highlight and the mountain road was improved to ease the journey.

The plan to take the torch to the peak was criticized long before the relay began last month. Activists said Beijing wants to use the event to underscore its claim to Tibet, which it has ruled with a heavy hand since communist troops occupied the region in 1951. Everest is on the border between Tibet and Nepal.

The sensitivity of the issue has been underscored in past weeks, with anti-government protests in Tibet turning violent on March 14 and demonstrations spreading throughout Tibetan areas of western China. They were the largest and most sustained protests against Beijing in almost two decades.

Since then, Olympic torch relay legs in London, Paris and San Francisco have been marked by protests against China's policies in Tibet.

Beijing has vowed the protests would not change its plans for the relay. The torch is expected to reach the summit of Mount Everest sometime in May, depending on the weather.

Environmentalists have criticized blacktopping the road, which begins in Tingri town of Tibet's Xigaze prefecture, arguing it would damage the permafrost in the ecologically fragile area.

Xinhua said the $21.5 million project did not damage the environment, citing the chief of administration for Mount Qomolangma State-Level Nature Reserve. Qomolangma is the Chinese name for Mount Everest.

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