Beijing Enters Play-offs to be Olympics Host

China's 2008 Olympics Bidding Committee anticipates neck-in-neck competition to make Beijing the site of the international summer games.

Committee members also report a few new moves by the International Olympic Committee (IOC): This committee will close its first application phase in August. Applicants must answer 22 questions and submit a report so the IOC can decide who enters the next round.

Beijing's Vice-Mayor Liu Jingmin, deputy director of the Chinese Olympics Bidding Committee, said the bidding committee had made "constructive" efforts and held an upbeat meeting yesterday.

Set up on September 6, the committee first worked on building Olympics-compatible infrastructure. Now it is working on a logo.

It unveiled the star-shaped emblem, the "New Beijing, New Olympics" slogan and launched an official website last month and designated 400 hectares along Fourth Ring Road as the event's main arena.

"The Olympics bid is a high-level competition between countries and cities," Liu said. "We need wide support."

Beijing citizens showed enthusiasm after the capital lost the bid to Sydney in 1993.

Chinese sports head Wu Shaozu said Beijing is fighting hard this year, too. Nine other cities, more than ever before, are vying to host the Olympics.

The cities are Bangkok, Osaka, Kuala Lumpur, Paris, Seville, Istanbul, Toronto, Havana and Cairo. Most of them are making their first bid.

The Olympics committee will make a final decision on a host city next year in Moscow.

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