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SINGAPORE: IOC Chief Jacques Rogge feels there will be "no momentum" for a boycott of this year's Beijing Olympic Games.
Mr Rogge was speaking on Saturday during his short tour of Singapore, where he visited some facilities that will be used for the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in 2010.
The IOC delegation was at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), where a mural for the Singapore Olympic Academy was unveiled.
The visitors were also given a tour of the university's hostels, which will be used as the back-up Games Village if the original one at the National University of Singapore (NUS) is not ready for the 2010 Games.
The delegation then travelled to the Singapore Sports School, which will host four of the 26 sports slated for the Games.
Despite his short stay in Singapore, Mr Rogge was impressed by what he saw, both in terms of the people's enthusiasm and the "state-of-the-art" hardware.
He felt that Singapore sports facilities were designed intelligently to meet the country's needs.
Mr Rogge said: "In many countries, you see facilities that are too big for the actual and real need of the country. They are what we call 'white elephants'. Here you don't find white elephants, at least not in sports venues. I think this has been a very clever investment by Singapore."
The IOC chief, who is heading on to Beijing, also touched on the boycott controversy surrounding the upcoming Olympic Games there.
He said: "We do not see a real momentum on a boycott by governments. There are talks about a partial boycott of the opening ceremony, but I would not want to comment specifically on that. It is up to the heads of governments to decide if they want to come to Beijing or not. It is not something that the IOC will intervene."
Mr Rogge added that IOC is not against protests at the Beijing Olympics as long as they are non-violent.
For the Singapore Youth Olympic Games, IOC will act as a partner to give its full support.
- CNA/so
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