Azerbaijan wants to host 2016 Olympics

Masally (Azerbaijan): Azerbaijan has applied to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, President Ilham Aliev said on Monday.

Opening a sports complex in the city of Masally, 240 kilometres south of the capital Baku, Aliev said Azerbaijan was the first former Soviet republic to formally express an interest in holding the Games.

"A few years ago we would not have thought of this, but today the country's sports potential and the growing economic might of Azerbaijan allows us to do so," he said.

Aliev said that Azerbaijan has built 11 Olympic-grade sports facilities since 2000 and is building or planning 14 more.

The Caucasus nation enjoys revenue from abundant oil and gas resources of the Caspian Sea, but is locked in a debilitating dispute with neighbouring Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous area that has been controlled by Armenian forces since the end of a six-year war in 1994.

Bid cities must submit a letter of interest to the International Olympic Committee by September 15. The host city will be chosen in 2009.