Crisis-hit New Delhi welcomed its first Commonwealth Games athletes on Friday as organisers raced against time to rescue the event amid claims the city should never have been chosen.
 

English athletes after their arrival at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi.

The Commonwealth Games Federation signalled that conditions were finally improving, but that there was still work to do after the athletes\' village was described as "uninhabitable" earlier in the week.

The showpiece multi-sport event, set to begin in nine days, had teetered on the brink of collapse on Tuesday when some nations had threatened to pull out amid worries about security, a bridge collapse and the state of the facilities.

"It is vital that all remedial work that has already started continues with the greatest urgency," Commonwealth Games Federation president Michaell Fennell said in a statement before inspecting the village.

"We must ensure that a suitable environment is provided to ensure the welfare of the athletes and their support staff."

The Games won a much-needed boost from Team England and New Zealand, which said they would send their athletes after an earlier warning from England that the competition was on a "knife-edge" as worries grew about Delhi\'s readiness.

High-profile athletes continued to pull out, however, including Welsh cyclist Geraint Thomas, an Olympic gold medal winner.

The first contingent of English athletes arrived at the airport in red and white tracksuits, but they are to stay in hotels rather than the village, where thousands of cleaners have been pressed into urgent action.

Australia\'s Olympic chief John Coates said that the Indian capital should never have been awarded the Games in the first place and said the Commonwealth Games Federation was also to blame for the shambolic organisation.

"The Games shouldn\'t have been awarded to New Delhi, in hindsight," Coates told reporters in Sydney.

"I think the problem is the Commonwealth Games Federation is under-resourced. It doesn\'t have the ability... to monitor the progress of cities in the way that the Olympic committee does."

Late on Thursday, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held a crisis meeting with senior ministers and Delhi\'s Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit oversaw the deployment of hundreds of staff to clean the athletes\' village.

"The most significant thing was the chief minister imposing herself," the head of the New Zealand mission in New Delhi, Dave Currie, told AFP by phone.

As well as England, Wales also said it was sending its team as planned after receiving assurances that the facilities were up to scratch, and Scotland said it had been "heartened" by Dikshit\'s involvement with the clean-up.

Canada, which had delayed sending its athletes, also welcomed the intervention by the Indian government.

"What you are seeing is now, for the first time, the injection or projection of significant political leadership in the organisation of the Games," said the president of Commonwealth Games Canada, Andrew Pipe.

"Frankly, this is leadership that has been lacking."

Several world-class athletes have already pulled out, including Australian world discus champion Dani Samuels, English Olympic 400m gold medallist Christine Ohuruogu and world triple jump champion Phillips Idowu.

And three British cyclists joined Thomas in deciding to stay at home.

Thomas said he was not prepared to risk his health in New Delhi, with reports of mosquito-borne dengue, as well as issues of sanitation in the village.

"It\'s a massive disappointment first and foremost, but with the hygiene and the risk of getting ill, it was a massive risk," he said.

A senior member of the Games organising committee issued a fulsome apology Thursday for what he said was a "collective failure" to get the Games in order.

"I genuinely feel sorry for whatever has happened and would like to apologise," committee treasurer A.K. Mattoo told the NDTV news channel.

The Delhi organisers have come under concerted attack for their lack of preparation, particularly in the athletes\' village, where photos emerged of a filthy leaking toilet, a stained and dirty shower, a bed with muddy dog paw prints on it, as well as rubble and water-logging.

New Delhi had been expecting 7,000 athletes and officials for the showpiece for Commonwealth countries, mostly nations and territories formerly in the British Empire.