The IOC evaluation commission, who left for Osaka of Japan at 15:20 with some positive words for the Chinese capital, will prepare a report on the Games' five candidate cities expected to play an influential role on the July 13 voting by IOC members to decide the Games venue.

"Although there could be many factors behind their final decision, I believe IOC members would choose the city of a country that will be most conducive to the Olympic Movement and that will leave the best Olympic legacy for human being; and that city should be Beijing," said Liu Qi, city mayor and chairman of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Bidding Committee (BOBICO).

Under BOBICO's three-phrase strategy to bring the world sports marquee event to the world's most populous country, Beijing has smoothly passed two exams -- the first being the submission of the candidature files to IOC on January 17 this year and the second the four-day scrutiny by the IOC team. And the BOBICO officials are arguably upbeat about their chances on the final one.

"From our performance in the January 17 mini-exam and this mid- term exam," said Yuan Weimin, BOBICO's executive president. "I can tell all of you with full confidence that we're capable of doing even better for the final exam in Moscow on July 13."

"We oppose any irrelevant factor distracting our bidding," said Yuan, also minister of the State Sports General Administration. "We firmly believe that if Beijing wins the right to host the 2008 Games, we're completely confident and fully capable of staging a most remarkable and unforgettable Games in Olympic history."

The IOC inspection team, headed by Hein Verbruggen of the Netherlands, said on Saturday that they were impressed with BOBICO 's professionalism and in-depth knowledge, a Green Olympics initiative, an overwhelming public support and a powerful backing by the central government.

Beijing bidders came to an optimistic conclusion from the remarks of the IOC officials, with its Mayor Liu Qi claiming the preparations "sufficient, earnest, steady and effective".

"The assessment made by the IOC evaluation commission will serve as a strong boost and encouragement to our bid," he said.

Compliments are also returned as BOBICO described the IOC inspectors as "an elite team with rich experience, high-level of professionalism and commitment".

"They had built a good image for the IOC which is going through profound reforms and their behavior here in Beijing is exemplary," Yuan said.

(People's Daily 02/26/2001)