OSAKA -- Chinese Olympic officials visiting Osaka on Monday denied earlier reports that China would not go after the 2008 Olympics, saying no final decision on the matter had been made.
On Saturday, Japanese media reports said Chinese Olympic officials told the Japan Olympic Committee that China wanted to help Osaka bring the Olympics to Asia, implying that neither Beijing nor Shanghai would go after the 2008 Games.
The news was greeted early Monday morning with cautious optimism by Osaka city officials, who have longed viewed China as Osaka's toughest potential competitor for the 2008 Games. But in a late-meeting with Osaka Mayor Takafumi Isomura, Wu Shaozu, head of the China Olympic Committee, said no final decision had been made.
"We want to host the Olympics, but we're not sure when," Wu told the mayor. "Yet even if we decide to pursue the 2008 Olympics in competition with Osaka, we want to compete in a friendly manner," he said. "China will go after the Olympics when the time is politically, socially and economically right. However, we are thinking in the near future, either for 2008 or 2012," Wu said.
He said earlier reports that China would not seek the 2008 Games are "incorrect" and that he had conveyed the same message to the Japan Olympic Committee last weekend.