  This paper presents the first set of fully calibrated images and associated
stellar catalogs of the Pre-FLAMES survey being carried out by the ESO Imaging
Survey (EIS) project. The primary goal of this survey is to provide the ESO
community with data sets from which suitable target lists can be extracted for
follow-up observations with the new VLT facility FLAMES. For this purpose 160
stellar fields have been selected for observations in B, V and I using the
8kx8k Wide Field Imager (WFI) at the MPG/ESO 2.2 m telescope at La Silla. These
data have been used to assess the observing strategy adopted and to define
suitable reduction techniques and procedures for the preparation of input
catalogs for FLAMES. The images and catalogs presented here are publicly
available and can be requested from the URL address ``http://www.eso.org/eis''.
