Michael Johnson, Donovan Bailey, Aleksander Popov and Michelle Kwan are among 1,500 competitors from 60 nations taking part in 15 sports for five million dollars in prize money at the 16-day multi-sport event.

Barely 25 per cent of the 600,000 available tickets have been sold in a city, hopeful of hosting the 2012 Olympic Games. The Goodwill Games have drawn little attention outside founder Ted Turner's media empire.

``You will see some of the world's greatest athletes competing for prize money. People will come out for that,'' Goodwill Games president Michael Plant said.

Three prior Goodwills have lost a total of $ 109 million. But a fifth edition of the Games is planned in 2001, to be conducted in Asia or Australia. An exact site will be revealed on Saturday.

The event will shift from its four-yearcycle to avoid conflicts with such events as the World Cup, Winter Olympics and world basketball and swimming championships.

More than 3,000 athletes were on hand at the 1986 Goodwill debut in Moscow, the biggest United States-Soviet Union multi-sport matchup in a decade after the 1980 US Olympic boycott and the 1984 Soviet boycott.

Gradually fewer competitors were included in 1990 at Seattle and 1994 at St Petersburg, Russia. The Soviet breakup dimmed the core rivalry.

``We had to change the scope of the event,'' Plant said. ``Table tennis has great athletes. You can sell it out in China and Asia. But it's not going to happen in America.''

Athletics, swimming, boxing, basketball, gymnastics, figure skating and diving will command the greatest attention.

Cycling, wrestling, water polo, triathlon, rhythmic gymnastics, beach volleyball, women's football and synchronised swimming are also included.Olympic 200m and 400m champion Johnson, nursing an injury, will run only the 400 here after he had plannedto attempt a double.

Jackie Joyner-Kersee will compete in her final heptathlon here before her farewell meet on July 25, with new American star Marion Jones set for the 100, 200 and long jump.

Canada's reigning 100m champion and World record holder Bailey, Trinidad's 200m World champion Ato Boldon and American World champion Maurice Greene in the 100m will also star in athletics.

Russian world swim sprint champion Popov faces American Bill Pilczuk, his top foe, even though US veteran Gary Hall (Jr) is out after a positive drug test for marijuana.

Rival US and Chinese women's swimmers meet in the Goodwill team format as will US and Iran wrestling teams. World champions Michelle Kwan and Alexei Yagudin will be top competitors in figure skating.