International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Juan Antonio Samaranch said here Wednesday that Beijing is a strong candidate to host the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.

"Your (Chinese) people are working very well, and I think Beijing can be a very strong candidate," Samaranch told Xinhua after a breakfast meeting with sports officials of the Philippines.

But he refused to be drawn upon the question of what main obstacles Beijing are facing in its bid for the 2008 Olympic Games.

Beijing, along with Paris, Osaka, Istanbul and Toronto, has been short listed as the official candidate of the Games.

The 81-year-old Samaranch, who arrived here from Palau Tuesday night, paid a courtesy call on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo after the breakfast meeting. He will fly to Singapore in the afternoon.

The trip of Samaranch, who first came here in the early eighties and returned in 1989, is one of his final official acts as IOC president as he will retire this year after a successful 20- year stint.

(People's Daily 04/12)