The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will visit Beijing in February next year ahead of the vote in July to decide the host city of the 2008 Games, a Chinese Olympic bid official said on Tuesday.

"The delegation sent by the IOC will visit Beijing from February 20 to 25. This is their first stop," said Jiang Xiaoyu, vice president of the Beijing bid committee.

Beijing is considered a strong contender to win the bid over the other finalists: Paris, Toronto, Osaka and Istanbul.

China, home to one-fifth of the world's population, has never hosted the Olympics. The country finished third in the medals table at the Sydney Games.

After losing out to Sydney as the 2000 hosts by just two votes, Beijing organizers are determined to win this time.

"We have made a lot of preparations in every area and we are solving traffic problems and pollution and improving communications," said Jiang.

Work on stadiums was being stepped up, a fourth ring road was near completion and work would begin soon on a fifth, he said.

The city had already invested $13 billion in environmental protection projects and would spend an additional $5.5 billion over the next three to five years, said Beijing's deputy mayor Liu Jingmin, who is also deputy executive president of the bid committee.

Efforts to curb vehicle emissions and move dirty factories to the outskirts of the city were underway, Liu said.

??People's Daily 10/30/2000??