Athens Olympic organizers said today that more than half of the available tickets to the games have been sold, almost reaching their expectations.

Organizers have sold 3.1 million tickets out of a total of 5.3 million, comparable with the games in Barcelona and Seoul, but far behind sales in Sydney and Atlanta.

Athens organizers had originally said their goal was to sell 3.4 million tickets or reach sales of $219 million. Then organizers said the goal was to sell between 3.1 million and 3.4 million tickets. Sales were currently at $217 million.

'Things are improving fast," said Marton Simitsek, an Athens 2004 executive.

Even though attendance has been disappointing thus far - venues at Monday's events were only about 55 percent full - officials said there are no plans for ticket discounts or giveaways.