Athens - The International Olympic Committee (IOC) produced a list of candidate cities for the 2016 Olympic Games.

Prague is not among them.

Cities that were selected are Chicago, Madrid, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro.

"All proposals were of high standard," assured head of the IOC Jacques Rogge.

The technical commission of the committee declared that Tokyo's bid was the best, with Madrid being in second place.

A test for Prague

Prague has earlier declared that they take their bid rather as a test. It wants to concentrate on winning the bid for the olympics in 2020 or 2024.

"I am a realist and the chances of Prague becoming an Olympic city for 2016 were practically nil," said Tomáš Petera, head of Prague Olympic, which led the campaign.

According to him, the Czech capital was unsuitable for example because in 2012 the Olympics will be held in London.

The organization Around the Rings that evaluated chances of the candidates said that chances of Prague were minimal. Favorites were Chicago and Rio de Janeiro.

In case of its success, Prague would have to pay USD 500 thousand. So far, the Prague Olympic association has spent about 2 million euro which is less than what other candidate cities have spent.

Four selected cities will have to present their detailed Olympic projects and invite members of the commission.

The IOC will decide what city will host the 2016 Olympics on October next year.