The importance of having a strong host team in London was underlined by Rogge, who believes Britain will be able to do even better than the 19 golds and 47 medals in total that secured fourth place in the table.

Rogge told a news conference in Beijing: "The British team is ready and that's important because we want a powerful and successful home team to foster the enthusiasm of the whole population.

"That has been achieved four years beforehand, and they will be able to improve even on that."

Rogge warned, however, that London faces a tough task to match Beijing, which has had spectacular ceremonies, more than a million volunteers, and unprecedented control over areas such as transport, labour, resources and security.

Rogge said: "It's clear that China has put the bar very high and it's going to be a challenge for London and also for all the subsequent Games.

"I believe and I hope that London can put the bar even higher so that we have consistent improvement and evolution of the Olympic Games.

"There are some things that London will not be able to compare or equal, such as the ability to bring in hundreds of thousands of volunteers to the different sites.

"That is something that is not going to be easy for London."

The IOC president said he was confident that London could step up to the mark by concentrating on different aspects.

He added: "I believe London has unique assets. Athens was returning to the roots, to the country that invented the Olympic Games. China was the most populous country in the world.

"London is the capital city of the country that has invented modern sport, that has invented the rules of the sports, and the values of fair play.

"It is a cosmopolitan, multi-ethnic and multi-religious city and that's something they can build on.

"The rest have no concerns. The venues will be fine, the village will be fine, the organisation will be fine."

Rogge said the legacy of the Beijing Games was that they had opened up China to the world.

"The world learned more about China, and China learned more about the rest of the world. Some of the changes in China are obvious today. Others will become apparent with time," said the IOC president.

He added that the improvements to the environment, in terms of the closure of the most-polluting factories, water-purification and the planting of trees would have permanent benefits.

Rogge also said he hoped that the Chinese government would extend the liberalised media reporting regulations beyond October.


Final medal table

Leaders G S B T

1 China 51 21 28 100

2 USA 36 38 36 110

3 Russia 23 21 28 72

4 GB 19 13 15 47

5 Germany 16 10 15 41

6 Australia 14 15 17 46

7 Sth Korea 13 10 8 31

8 Japan 9 6 10 25

9 Italy 8 10 10 28

10 France 7 16 17 40

11 Ukraine 7 5 15 27

12 Holland 7 5 4 16