The Monaco Games Organising Committee is keeping its fingers crossed over the staging of tonight's open air ceremony which is expected to attract a capacity crowd of around 7,000 persons - all seated - on the stands of last Sunday's F1 Grand Prix in Monaco Harbour.

They are simply hoping the current spate of brilliant weather will extend to today for the event to be a complete success.

It is expected to start at 9pm with a fanfare from 27 policemen.

This will be followed by the march-past of the athletes of the eight participating nations who will march in this order: Andorra, Cyprus, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, San Marino and Monaco.

Malta's flag bearer is swimmer Angela Galea, while Chef de Mission is Pippo Psaila, who is also the Maltese Olympic Committee's Director of Sport. His assistants here in Monaco are Marie Therese Zammit and Vince Scicluna.

There will then be the arrival of Dr Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee as well as the president of the European Olympic Committees Mr Hickey.

Some short addresses from the various distinguished guests will follow. The oath will be taken by Pierrick Solerieu (swimmer) and Fabienne Pasetti (shooter), the former in French and the latter in English. The oath will then also be taken by Bernard Tressel in French and Charlotte Greppe in English, on behalf of all the officials.

The jingle of the Games will bring to an end the first part of the ceremony.

In the second part there will be a sequence which will include highlights from the following disciplines: wrestling, volleyball, swimming, boxing and shooting.

Another sequence will concern pollution which is invading planet Earth.

And there is to be something special to celebrate the centenary of the Monagesque Olympic Committee.

After the display, the Games flame will arrive on the scene. The ceremony will be concluded by Prince Albert of Monaco who will declare the 12th edition of the Games open.