Madrid will bid for 2016 Games

MADRID, July 6 (Reuters) Madrid, which failed last year in its attempt to host the 2012 Olympics, said today it will now bid for the 2016 Summer Games.

''We are going to fight so that the Olympic flag will fly over the Spanish capital,'' said city mayor Albert Ruiz-Gallardon. ''Madrid has an Olympic vocation, a flame that still burns strongly.

''We are going to stage the best ever Olympic games with a doubling of our institutional, civic and emotional support for the bid.'' Madrid was eliminated in the third round of voting at an International Olympic Committee (IOC) congress in Singapore exactly a year ago.

London was awarded the Games after defeating Paris in the decisive vote.

IOC president Jacques Rogge said this year that European cities would still have a chance to host the 2016 Olympics.

''If a bid is strong enough, the idea of rotating the Games between continents will not come into play,'' Rogge told reporters in March.

REUTERS AY RK1815