Sarajevo among eight hopefuls for 2010 Winter Olympics

Eight venues, including 1984 hosts Sarajevo, have made official applications to bid for the 2010 Winter Games, the International Olympic Committee announced on Tuesday.

IOC sports director Gilbert Felli said applications had come from Andorra, Berne (Switzerland), Harbin (China), Jaca (Spain), Vancouver (Canada), Salzburg (Austria), Sarajevo (Bosnia) and Pyeon Chang (South Korea).

The IOC will decide on the venue in a vote in Prague in July 2003.

Sarajevo Olympic officials are pressing ahead with their bid despite the Bosnian capital's war-torn past.

"I'm an optimist," said Vladislav Slokar, a member of the city's bidding committee. "It looked almost impossible in 1978 but we still won it," he said, referring to Sarajevo's bid for the 1984 Olympics.

The 1992-1995 Bosnian war destroyed many of the Olympic facilities in Sarajevo and on nearby mountains.

About 12,000 people died during the conflict, and many Sarajevans feel it would be important to host the Games again as a symbol that the city has overcome the bloodshed.

Vancouver, Berne and Salzburg are expected to provide very strong bids. The Swiss town of Sion ran a solid campaign to stage the 2006 Games before missing out to Turin. The IOC is based in Switzerland.

Canada's Toronto also organised a good bid for the 2008 Summer Games last year before losing out to Beijing in a vote last July.

Harbin, however, will find it tough to persuade IOC members to take the Winter Games to China, just two years after the Summer Games take place in the country for the first time.

The National Olympic Committees had until Monday to inform the IOC of a bid from their country.

The eight venues will now go through a bid acceptance procedure to review their organisational capacity.

The IOC said no city would become a candidate until it is selected by its ruling executive board at a meeting in Lausanne at the end of August.

After being accepted as candidates, cities will then be required to submit their files and prepare for visits by the IOC's evaluation commission. The commission will then produce a report on the venues for members before they vote in 2003.

The 2002 Winter Olympics open in Salt Lake City on Friday.