Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov said today the Russian capital has submitted a bid to host the 2005 athletics world championships to the international athletics ruling body IAAF.
At a meeting with a visiting IAAF expert committee, Luzhkov stressed that Moscow has had experience of hosting top rank sporting events, including the 1980 Olympics.
He added that Moscow's City Hall was ready to invest up to $30 million for the organisation of the event and to stage a massive advertising campaign to attract spectators to the event.
The host city of the 2005 athletics championships remains vacant after England decided to withdraw from hosting the event.
Berlin, Brussels, Rome, Helsinki and Budapest have also placed their bids to host the event. The decision on the host city of the world championships will be finalised on April 14th in Nairobi, Kenya.
AFP