Primo Nebiolo has poured more cold water on Athens' bid to host the 2004 Olympic Games by questioning the city's ability to hold major athletics events.

Nebiolo, a key player in Rome's rival bid, said the recent World Championships in the Greek capital ran smoothly only because of the efforts of the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF), which he heads.

"The reality is that the Greeks are not capable of organising an event of that nature," he said. "It was a great event, but without the IAAF it would have been very difficult to make it work with only Greek organisers."

Athens blamed the Italian lawyer during the championships earlier this month for painting Greece as backward in order to promote Rome's bid.

Athens and Rome are considered favourites for the Games. Cape Town, Stockholm and Buenos Aires are the other short-listed cities who will learn their fate at a meeting of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on September 5th.

Nebiolo criticised Athens for trying to influence the IOC during the championships, which he said were given to Athens only because it failed to win its previous Olympic bid.

"We gave Athens the World Championships as compensation for the great disappointment of losing to Atlanta for the 1996 Olympics," Nebiolo said.

"I was shocked to find that in Athens organisational aspects were mixed up with the Olympic candidature. The IAAF wanted everything to go well, but there was a desire to turn the championships into something else."