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Brazil sets its sights on the 2016 olympic games

The country's president said he is confident following a fact finding trip to China and has declared that the South American nation would be a suitable host. It has already secured the Fifa World Cup in 2014.

Hosting the World Cup and spending hundreds of billions of dollars on infrastructure improvements has already made Brazil a major attraction to foreign property investors. Securing the Olympic Games can only add to this.

President Lula da Silva said the trip to China was very helpful to Brazil's aim of securing two of the world's most prestigious sporting events within two years of each other.

The Brazilian delegation met representatives of the International Olympic Committee and also looked at how the Beijing games are being managed.

'Rio de Janeiro has all the right conditions to win this bid even if it is in competition with cities such as Tokyo, Chicago and Madrid. We have learned from the Chinese about the event's organisation,' said President Lula.

The Brazilian president met with International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge. 'I asked him to think about Brazil between now and 2016, with an economy growing strongly, with the poor gaining access to the middle class, with improved infrastructure and more security,' Lula said.

'I told him The Olympic Games were not created to take place only in rich countries and that Brazil is much better prepared than numerous other countries to host the Games.'

He also pointed out that the Panamerican Games of July 2007 had been a real success and the country's hosting of the World Cup in 2014 would act as an ideal preparation for the Olympic Games two years later.

The cities shortlisted for the 2016 Games must submit a detailed dossier to the IOC in February next year and the final decision will be made at an IOC meeting in Copenhagen on October 2, 2009.

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