ATLANTA. Nov 10: The International Olympic Committee acknowledges the financial diffi- cultiqs facing the organisers of the 1996 Atlanta Games, reports AP.

The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games has concentrated on its financing plan because. unlike most Olympic hosts, government backing is not an option.

"It's nerve-wracking business because these Games, as you know, are privately financed." Dick Pound, an IOC vice president who chairs the body’s coordinating committee for the 1996 Games, said Tuesday.

"With different organising committees, their priorities are different at different stages. With Atlanta, they've had to devote much more time making sure the finances are there be-

cause you can't spend what you don't have."

Pound spoke at a news conference after the coordinating committee's two-day. semi annual meeting with ACOG officials.

“It's going to be a stretch." he said of ACOG's marketing efforts, “But we continue to believe that the revenue targets that have been established are achievable."

The 1.47 billion dollars event will be financed largely from corporate sponsorships, aided by other revenues from the sale of tickets and television rights. Pound said sponsorship sales are going better than expected.

"As to other sources.' there ain't none." he said. "So we've sharp pencils and lots of Rolaids."

An example of the budget problems was ACOG's decision

to move the rowing and canoe-ing venues from Stone Mountain Park in suburban Atlanta because it would be too expensive to eliminate an island in the middle of the proposed course on Stone Mountain Lake.

Pound said that decision "caused enormous dismay" among IOC members, who had considered the Stone Mountain venues an essential part of Atlanta's bid for the Games.

Still. Pound said, the IOC and ACOG were ready to “put rowing and canoeing where it ought to be and not worry about where it could have been."

Although the venue is not final. current plans are to put rowing and canoeing in an under-construction reservoir in Rockdale County, another east Atlanta suburb.