  An analysis of the possible contribution of the hard pomeron in elastic
hadron scattering at LHC energies is made. It is shown that such a contribution
has affected the shape of the differential cross section in the Coulomb-hadron
interference region and in the dip region. On the basis of the new High-Energy
General Structure (HEGS) model, the possible contributions of the hard pomeron
are investigated. The predictions of the model at $8 \ $ TeV are discussed.
