Other website sections

»Sports Market Reports

»Sports Jobs

»Tenders

»Directory

»Conferences

Heads of state from Japan, Brazil, the United States and Spain will attend an International Olympic Committee (IOC) meeting next year to decide on the host city of the 2016 Games, the four bidders said on Saturday.

Tokyo, Chicago, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro have made the shortlist with a decision set for October 2009 at an IOC session in Copenhagen.

In a rare joint appearance on Saturday, hoping to cash in on the media publicity shortly before the end of the Beijing Olympics, bid leaders said they enjoyed full support from their governments.

"Our head of state is an honorary advisor to our committee. Of course he will be there and we can enjoy his support," Tokyo bid leader Ichiro Kono told reporters. Japan's Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda was also briefly in Beijing for the Games opening ceremony.

Chicago is counting on the support of a new president, with either Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain in the White House by then.

Chicago bid chief Patrick Ryan said whoever won, barring any scheduling problems, would be in Copenhagen.

"He will demonstrate to the world that Chicago welcomes the world," said Ryan.

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was also in Beijing earlier and had spoken publicly in support of Rio's bid.

"When God made the world, he prepared Rio for the Olympic Games," he said days ago. Bid leader Carlos Nuzman said the President would attend the session next year as well.

Madrid's Mercedes Coghen said the Spanish royal family and Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero were also firmly behind the bid and would travel to Denmark for the vote.

Heads of state have attended IOC sessions that voted on bid cities before, with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair credited for helping London's winning 2012 Games bid.

Russia's Vladimir Putin, then the President, attended an IOC session in Guatemala in 2007, backing Russia's Sochi winning bid to host the 2014 Winter Olympics.

But the IOC has expressed concerns their high-profile appearances may upstage the vote itself and plans to set certain conditions ahead of Copenhagen to reduce the size of the entourage and their convoy of vehicles.

(Source: Reuters)