PUSAN, South Korea - China dominated the 14th Asian games by winning 150 gold medals, hosts South Korea surpassed expectations by taking more than twice as many golds as Japan and India surprised everyone by picking up 11.

But the 14th edition of the Games will be remembered more because North Korea showed up at a big sporting event in the South for the first time, raising hopes that unification may be more than just a dream almost 50 years after the Korean War.

The North's official cheerleaders chanted, "We are..." and South Koreans responded with "...one." The women's marathon winner Ham Pong-Il, from the North, announced she wanted the South to win the men's event to help unification.

Lee Bong-ju duly obliged to give the host country their fourth consecutive title in the marathon ahead of the colorful closing ceremony at the Pusan Main Stadium on Monday.

But, as always, Asia's biggest sporting event was dominated by China's athletes. Their gold tally compared favorably to the 129 they gathered in Bangkok four years ago and the 125 they won in Hiroshima in 1994, though they had more athletes here.

Chinese sports officials were less impressed, however, saying that while it was "good training" for the 2004 Athens Olympics, many of China's athletes performed below world standards.

"A large number of our athletes won titles but they were far off the highest international standards," Li Furong, an Olympic Committee vice president, said on the final day of the Games.

He could have been speaking for most countries taking part in a sprawling event widely criticized for having too many sports -- 38 including bodybuilding and soft tennis -- but too few world class athletes. Nobody came close to an athletics world record.

SCHOOLBOY WINNER

But there were some outstanding performances topped by the youngest of the Chinese.

Zhang Nan, 16, won five golds in women's gymnastics and the 17-year-old Xu Yanwei won four women's swimming titles -- topping the list of multi-medalists at the Games.

Schoolboy sensation Wu Peng was equally impressive as the 15-year-old won individual gold in the 200 butterfly, 200 backstroke and 400 individual medley.

Wu, the Chinese answer to Ian Thorpe, upset Japanese swimmers in all three events, while Xu Yanwei won five titles, including two individual golds in the women's competition, as China dominated 20-11 in swimming golds.

Success in the pool was sweet for China after they finished second best in 1998 and had eight of 23 swimming winners stripped of their gold medals for failing dope tests at the 1994 Games in Hiroshima.

Japan's Kosuke Kitajima broke the oldest long-course world record in men's swimming and finished with three gold medals on his return from an elbow injury.

The 20-year-old Kitajima clocked two minutes 9.97 seconds in the 200 meters breaststroke final to eclipse the record of 2:10.16 set by American Mike Barrowman at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

Four Chinese women and one man also set world weightlifting records. Among them, Sun Ruiping and Liu Chunhong broke world marks in snatch, clean and jerk and total weight to win golds.

China won 14 athletics golds compared to two for South Korea and Japan. India were second with eight alongside Saudi Arabia, although their women's 1500 meters gold medallist Sunita Rani tested positive for nandrolone. She denied taking the drug.

Saudi Arabia and China won the 5,000 and 10,000 meters as Makhld Al-Otaibi and Sun Yingjie won gold in the men's and women's events respectively, while Bahrain made their mark on the men's middle distance events with golds in the 800 and 1500.

GOLDEN IRAN

Defending champions Iran won their fourth Games soccer title after a 2-1 victory over Japan in the final of the under-23 tournament to help make up for their failure to reach this year's World Cup finals in South Korea and Japan.

But it was a roller-coaster ride for Iran, who won the gold in 1974, 1990 and 1998, as they were outplayed by hosts South Korea in the semi-finals before a 5-3 penalty shoot-out win.

The Iran players dedicated their victory to veteran striker Ali Daei, who had returned to Tehran before the quarter-finals following the sudden death of his father.

South Korea, with a squad including five players who helped them to reach the World Cup semi-finals, settled for bronze, along with Thailand, coached by former Aston Villa striker Peter Withe.

The Palestinians and Afghanis got a medal each through boxer Ukeshek, who won a light heavyweight bronze, and Roia Zamani, who won a woman's middleweight taekwondo bronze -- despite losing her only bout -- for her country's first medal in decades.

Bhutan, Cambodia, East Timor, the Maldives and Oman were the unfortunate countries to finish without a medal of any color.

The Asian Games now moves on to Doha in Qatar in 2006 amid talk that cricket might be added to the sports on offer, while canoeing could be dropped due to a lack of facilities. The fate of baseball, softball and rugby hang in the balance.

(Additional reporting by Paul Eckert)