The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will decide on the venue for the Games in July 2005.

The 2008 Games were awarded to Beijing in 2001. The next Summer Games take place in Athens in 2004.

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PARIS

The French capital hesitated about bidding for the 2012 Games after losing the 2008 race to Beijing.

The main aspects of its bid should be the same as the 2008 project. Back then the bidders said Paris would build a 10,000-capacity velodrome and an Olympic pool of similar capacity.

The city's assets are a good public transport network, cultural and tourist attractions and sufficient accommodation.

The city hosted the Summer Games in 1900 and 1924.

France staged the soccer World Cup in 1998, in which Paris played a major part, hosting the final won by France at the Stade de France.

France's most recent success on the international sporting stage was the world athletics championships in August last year and it has also been awarded the 2007 rugby union World Cup.

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LONDON

The planned site for the Games would regenerate an area of east London.

A government poll showed 81 percent of Britons favour efforts to bring the Games back to London for the first time since 1948. The city also hosted the Olympics in 1908.

Britain has struggled with its image in world sport after being forced to pull out of staging the 2005 world athletics championships because of problems building a stadium in London.

However, 2002's successful Commonwealth Games in Manchester helped repair the damage.

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MADRID

The capital beat Seville in the race to be Spain's bidder. Madrid's only previous attempt at an Olympic bid was for the 1972 Games, which went to Munich.

Madrid is basing its campaign on being one of the few major European capitals yet to stage an Olympic Games.

Spain was the venue of one of the most successful Olympics of recent times in 1992 when Barcelona won widespread praise for its organisation and handling of the Games.

The Madrid region has a good transport network and plentiful hotel accommodation.

The organising committee envisages between 600 and 900 million euros will be invested on new sporting infrastructure as part of its bid.

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MOSCOW

Moscow hosted the 1980 Games -- the first to be staged by a country with a communist government.

The event was overshadowed by a U.S.-led boycott after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 but IOC chief Rogge has praised the sporting superpower's staging of the Games.

Rogge also said the Moscow theatre siege in which 129 theatre-goers died in October 2002 will not have a negative impact on the Russian capital's bid. Rogge described the bid as "very serious".

"Russia is a great sports country and the 2012 Games in Moscow could be the Olympics for all of Russia," ROC president Leonid Tyagachyov said. "Therefore, we think Moscow has an excellent chance."

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NEW YORK CITY

The Big Apple promised triathlon in Central Park and boxing in Madison Square Garden to beat San Francisco in the bid race.

New York's backers made a case for a resilient city recovering from the September 11 attacks but the IOC has said emotions will not play a part in the decision.

One of New York's main selling points is that no venue would be more than 20 miles (32 km) from the Olympic village.

The projected cost of hosting the Games in New York is $2.7 billion. The city would need to build many of its planned facilities, including an 86,000-seat Olympic stadium.

The United States last hosted a Summer Olympics in Atlanta in 1996 where a bomb killed one person and injured 110.

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Havana, Rio de Janeiro, Istanbul and Leipzig in Germany were dropped from an initial shortlist on Tuesday.