Seven cites will discover this week whether their planning and lobbying has paid off when the International Olympic Committee draws up its shortlist of candidate cities for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.

The IOC will announce its choice during an executive board meeting on Thursday at its headquarters in Switzerland.

Bulgarian capital Sofia, Salzburg in Austria, South Korea's Pyeongchang, Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi, Jaca in Spain, Almaty in Kazakhstan and Georgia's Borjomi are all vying to host the Games in eight years' time.

The 2010 Games will be held in Vancouver, Canada.

The IOC's 15 Executive Board members, including their President Jacques Rogge, will review a report and recommendations made by their working group which has examined all the bids for months.

"There is no specific limit to how many cities will make the cut," an IOC official said told Reuters this week. "No maximum or minimum number has been set."

The 2014 host city will be chosen next year.

The official announcement by Rogge at the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, in front of the cities' delegations, is scheduled for 1300 local time (1100 GMT).

Salzburg was considered a frontrunner because of its infrastructure and the country's long tradition in winter sports.

But a doping scandal at this year's Turin Games involving athletes and coaches of Austria's cross-country and biathlon teams and a bitter dispute between the National Olympic Committee and the federation over who was to blame could well have hurt its chances.

IOC SUSPENSIONS

Pyeongchang had also climbed up the favourites' ladder as Asia's strongest bid but the dismissal of two of the country's IOC members after corruption and embezzlement convictions could affect the decision.

Sochi enjoys the backing of Russian president Vladimir Putin, who spends holidays in the Black sea resort, and has approved a multi-billion dollar investment plan regardless of the bid.

But both necessary road construction and security concerns because of its proximity to the restless region of Chechnya and the Caucasus could be a drawback.

Sofia bidders last week sounded confident and said even if they did not make the cut they would bid again for 2018, showing a long-term Olympic committment which the IOC always likes to see.

Madrid's praised but failed bid for the 2012 summer Games which were awarded to London, could have a positive knock-on effect on Jaca.

But the decision to split competition between Jaca and the city of Zaragoza some 142 km away is not expected to win many bonus points. Borjomi faces a simlilar problem, planning to hold the indoor sports in the capital Tbilisi more than 170 km away.

Kazakhstan's Almaty has pledged more than 300 million euros ($379.9 million) for venue construction alone, none of it temporary.

But the volume of construction needed for the Games could raise concerns over the timetable especially after the long and worrying delays in preparations for the 2004 Athens Games.

(Eurosport via CRI June 22, 2006)