IOC counts on Paris bid for 2024 Games

Monaco: Top International Olympic Committee (IOC) members are increasingly confident that Paris will bid for the 2024 Olympics ahead of a deadline of September next year to enter the race, officials said Sunday.

"We expect Paris to be a candidate" and that France`s President Francois Hollande will overcome opposition from the mayor of the French capital, one IOC member told AFP.

Another source close to the Olympic leadership said that when Hollande met IOC president Thomas Bach last week he "indicated" that a bid was likely.

The socialist mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, will make a final decision however, French government officials have said.

If Paris wins 2024, it would be exactly 100 years after it last staged the summer Games.

But Paris was hurt by its defeat to London in the race for the 2012 Olympics and Hidalgo has expressed doubts about a new attempt. She has promised a decision in January.

There is already a long list of potential candidates for the 2024 Games readying their bids ahead of a September 15, 2015 deadline announced by the IOC at the weekend. A final decision will be taken in mid-2017.

In Europe, Berlin and Hamburg in Germany and the Italian capital Rome are also studying bids.

The United States is to choose between Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington DC and Boston. The United States last held the summer Games in Atlanta in 1996.

Durban in South Africa could press to become the first African host of the Games. Istanbul is also considering a new bid.

Cities must make applications by September 15 and then have until January 8, 2016 to place guarantees. A final list of candidate cities will be chosen by the IOC in May 2016 leaving about 14 months campaigning before a final vote.