VANCOUVER, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- Organizers of Vancouver Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games decided Saturday to postpone the start of Phase 3 ticket sales to Next Saturday, Nov. 14, due to technical problem.

    The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) announced the decision in a press release. Earlier Saturday morning, visitors hoping to purchase Olympic and Paralympic tickets at www.vancouver2010.com were unable to access the site as previously planned.

    According to VANOC's press release, Tickets.com, the official ticket service provider for Vancouver 2010, experienced difficulties with the configuration between the virtual waiting room and the ticketing transaction site.

    Larry Witherspoon, CEO of Ticket.com, said that the technical team is working hard to resolve the issue.

    Even though the problem is close to being resolved, said Caley Denton, vice president of ticketing for VANOC, "we made the decision to postpone the start of Phase 3 ticket sales for one week as our priority has always been to ensure fair access to Canadian residents and to allow sufficient time to plan accordingly".