Juan Antonio Samaranch, former president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), considered that Beijing 2008 Olympic Games could be splendid. 

Cuban daily Granma Wednesday quoted Samaranch as suggesting that Olympic Games in the capital of China could be the best in history.

"Beijing's candidacy was already a revelation. It is a city that is at its full and surprising development and is showing an imagination and a technicism that touches whoever studies its current evolution," the Spanish official said.

In his opinion, if Beijing confirmed in the following four years their efforts towards development, "we will see ourselves in the face of some splendid Games. Why not the best?"

Samaranch, 83, directed the IOC for 21 years, from 1980 to 2001.

(Xinhua News Agency March 11, 2004)