Liu Qi, president of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG), said China is aiming at achieving better results at the 2008 Olympic Games, but not necessarily the top position on medal table.

In a meeting with Pierre Louette, Chairman of Agence France-Presse here on Tuesday, Liu Qi denied that China had a strong willing to exceed the United States to top the medal table at the 2008 Olympic Games.

"All Chinese People are expecting this rare opportunity to play host to this Olympic Games," Liu Qi said, "Chinese athletes got quite good results in 2006 and the whole sporting level of China had been improved."

"But we still could not see the spatial differences between China and some traditional sports powerhouses such as the United States and Russia. Many countries are busy improving their own level and investments are largely put into."

"There will be more difficulties for us in next year's Olympic Games but our athletes will all do their best to get a good result. And I believe that we won't get less gold medals than we got in Athens. But it all depends on the games." Liu Qi said.

Source: Xinhua