Two-time Olympic host France aims to at least level its gold tally four years ago at the Beijing Games.

France held the Summer Olympic Games twice in 1900 and 1924. It is also the birth country of Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Movement.

Slalom canoeist Tony Estanguet led the French team into the Olympic opening ceremony at the "Bird's Nest" National Stadium on Friday night.

The team, which consists of 323 athletes, will seek medals in swimming, athletics, fencing, tennis, judo, cycling and canoeing.

In the 1996 Games, France reached its apex by bagging 15 gold, seven silver and 15 bronze medals to finish fifth on the medal tally.

But in the next two Games, France seemed to run out of steam, slipping to sixth and seventh.

Bernard Laporte, French Secretary of State for Sports, said ahead of the Beijing Games that the team is targeting at between 35 and 40 medals. The French won 33 in Athens.

Laporte also said that the aim is to at least match the seventh-place finish on 11 gold medals grabbed four years ago.

France has to pin its medal hopes on swimmers at the Beijing Olympics.

The National Aquatic Center, or Water Cube, is likely to become a bonanza for France as the country boasts a contingent of swimmers able to make splashes.

Athens saw the arrival on the scene of the multi-talented 17-year-old Laure Manoudou, who captured gold in the 400 meters freestyle, silver in the 800m freestyle and bronze in the 100m backstroke.

Since then she has developed into one of the most dominant female swimmers in the world.

In the men's part, Alain Bernard has emerged as a potential star of the Games after breaking both the world 50m and 100m freestyle records at the European Championships in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, in March.

Bernard will spearhead a French 4x100m freestyle relay team that has real hopes of upsetting Americans and Australians, and the French have two or three other swimmers who have high hopes of making the podium.

The country can hardly count on athletics in the Olympics, especially after the French suffered an embarrassing moment of coming home empty-handed from last year's world championships in Osaka, Japan.

The 110m hurdler Ladji Doucoure, the 2005 world champion, might be the only one to carry the hopes on track and he will challenge China's defending champion Liu Xiang and world record holder Dayron Robbles of Cuba.

(Xinhua News Agency August 8, 2008)