Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Monday praised Australia's Olympians for their outstanding performance and promised to continue sports funding in the lead-up to the London 2012 Games.

"Australia had done an outstanding job finishing in sixth place on the medal table," Rudd told ABC Radio.

Australia finished behind China, the United States, Russia, Great Britain and Germany, with 14 gold medals, 15 silver and 17 bronze. The total medal number has surpassed Germany.

"The point is we are a highly competitive nation when it comes to international sport," Rudd said.

"They have done fantastically well as a team and what I've said prior to the Olympics starting, and in Beijing before the Games actually began, is that the Government will be long-term funding partners with the AOC (Australian Olympic Committee), with the Australian Institute of Sport in the lead-up to the London Games and to the Games beyond that as well."

Talking about the future sports, Rudd said he believed there were two challenges for Australia for the period ahead in the lead- up to the Londun Games.

"One is to widen the community participation in sport and that is one of the thrusts which Kate Ellis, the sports minister, is working on and has a lot of work underway at the moment. And secondly,of course, that feeds into, of course, your elite level sports as well."

"We compete well at Olympics, we believe in getting behind our athletes, we do the right thing but at the same time we want to broaden out the community participation in sport as well," the prime minister added.

"So, if you ask what's the government's overall approach to sports funding, it's to ensure that both these areas of sporting activity, both from the general community and at the elite level, are properly supported in the long-term future," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency August 25, 2008)