TOKYO: Tokyo has vowed it is ready for a tough battle with three rival cities as it makes its case for the right to host the 2016 Olympic Games this week.

The Japanese capital hopes to stage what it says would be the “most compact and most environmentally friendly Olympics” but faces stiff competition from Chicago, Rio de Janeiro and Madrid.

“It’s really neck and neck, according to expert information,” the city’s governor Shintaro Ishihara said. “We have no choice but to emphasise Tokyo’s characteristics and see how they will come across,” Ishihara said. “We’ll explain them in a kind and meticulous manner,” he said.

The outspoken novelist-turned-politician, 76, made the remarks here on Sunday before leaving for International Olympic Committee headquarters in Lausanne.

The four cities will face question-and-answer sessions with some 100 IOC members on Wednesday and Thursday. The IOC will choose the 2016 summer games host in Copenhagen on October 2. This week’s presentation will be an occasion on which the bidders can address IOC members.

Tokyo, which staged the games in 1964, making it the only bidding city to be a previous host, has explained to the commission that 95 per cent of its Olympic venues will be within an eight-kilometre radius.

A projected 100,000-seat main stadium will be partly covered by a canopy of

solar power cells, while some venues will be set on a forested islet that is a former rubbish dump.Another of Tokyo’s strongest points is its financial strength as it has already have some $4 billion for construction of venues and infrastructure in the bank.