Inspectors from the International Olympic Committee Sunday ended their tour of Tokyo, saying they were impressed by the city's "highly professional" bid to host the 2016 Games.

"We have been most impressed to find what Tokyo could offer the Olympic Games," said Nawal El Moutawakel, chairwoman of the IOC evaluation commission, at the end of a four-day inspection tour.

At a news conference, she thanked the Tokyo bid committee "for the excellent and highly professional preparation, cooperation, hard work and hospitality.

"We are very impressed by the vision, the high quality of presentation and the concept that was presented to us," she said, but added the IOC team would need further, "in-depth studies" of bids by Tokyo and the three other candidates.

The IOC commission has already visited Chicago and will tour Rio de Janeiro and Madrid in the coming weeks. It will draw up a report a month before around 100 IOC members choose the 2016 host, on October 2.

Tokyo is the only one of the candidates to have hosted the Summer Games -- in 1964 -- an event which helped it become an economic superpower.

For 2016, Tokyo plans to host the "most compact" and environment-friendly Olympics yet, with 95 percent of all venues located within eight kilometres (five miles) from a 100,000-seat main stadium to be built on a landfill.

Around 70 percent of the venues will be within a 10-minute ride of the athletes' village. El Moutawakel, an IOC executive board member, called Tokyo a "dynamic city," but had noted earlier, during her visit to Chicago, that there were "four strong bidders" for the 2016 Games. Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara said,

"We managed to answer very pointed questions. I think they could understand the superb vision and concept of Tokyo's bid."

Tokyo prides itself on its financial health and its concerns for environmental issues. The city has set aside 3.7 billion dollars for construction of venues and related infrastructure and has received financial guarantees from the central government to cover any shortfall.

"We have been given assurances regarding financial aspects which we are going to study carefully," said El Moutawakel, a Moroccan who won the inaugural women's 400-metre hurdles at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

Financial issues have been a major concern among IOC leaders, including president Jacques Rogge, in the face of the global economic downturn. "

Although the financial situation is a little bit difficult, I don't think this situation will last forever," she said.

"You never know if other crises might happen. But we are happy to see four of the strongest cities bidding for the Games."

AFP