The site of the Olympic sailing competition is "basically" free of the bright-green algae bloom that recently carpeted the sea off the Chinese city of Qingdao, an official said on Tuesday.

The sea-blanketing algae bloom, which officials blamed on natural causes, had disrupted the practice sessions for more than 30 Olympic sailing teams already there.

The Chinese government had set a goal of clearing the sailing area by Tuesday.

"Now it's totally different from several days ago. It's hard to find the green algae, especially in the Olympics sailing site," Wang Haitao, vice-president of the sailing committee for China's games organising committee...