The race to host the 2008 Olympics got underway in Lausanne Friday when the ten bidding cities had their initial debriefing with members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Bangkok, Beijing, Havana, Istanbul, Kuala Lumpur, Osaka, Paris, Seville, Toronto and Cairo officially applied to IOC headquarters in Lausanne earlier this month.

Taking the next step Friday, Olympic committees including six representatives for each city met at IOC headquarters where they received a technical questionnaire to make their candidacy official.

"This meeting is like the starting gun. We have been preparing these dossiers for months and now this is the real start of the race. And the judge in this race is the IOC," said Noel de Saint Pulgent, who is leading the French delegation backing the Paris games' bid.

During Thursday's meeting, the IOC instructed the city representatives on the new host city election procedure implemented by the IOC last December following the Salt Late City votes-for-brides scandal.

Under this new procedure, bid applicants will have to pass a new bid acceptance phase during which their organizational capacities will be reviewed before being accepted as candidates.

IOC Director General Francois Carrard said that the IOC had turned a new leaf after the worst scandal in the history of the organisation.

"Unofficial visits are being prohibited, presents are being prohibited, and sanctions can be taken against offenders," Carrard said, adding that candidates to host the Games would deal from now on exclusively with the IOC's executive commission.

Carrard and Gilbert Felli, IOC sporting director, who chaired the meeting, gave each bid city a technical questionnaire which must be returned completed.

The IOC will analyse the responses and eliminate dossiers which they judge as too weak.

The IOC's executive committee will then meet in Sydney to study each dossier closely. By the end of the year, they will announce which cities have been approved and on July 16, 2001, in Moscow they will declare the final winner.

Beijing is the early favourite. The Chinese capital lost out on the 2000 Games to Sydney by only two votes.

(China Daily)