SHANGHAI, Oct. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee, realized his dream to watch a Formula One race in Shanghai at the season-ending Grand Prix on Sunday.

    Rogge, on a week-long visit of China, said that he failed to get an opportunity to watch a F1 race before until today even though there has been a Belgian Grand Prix in his home country for a long time.

    "This is the first time for me to watch the F1 race. I am very glad to be here in Shanghai," he told Xinhua. "There has been a F1race in Belgium for a long time. But for me this is the first. It's a great sport."

    He said that it's great for the motor sport to come to China.

    "It is a new development for F1 to be held in China," Rogge said. "F1 used to be held in the same country. China has 1.3 billion people and we are opening sport to 25 per cent of world's population."

    Rogge came to China to attend last Wednesday's two-hour opening ceremony for the country's 10th National Games being held in Nanjing, some 300 kilometers away from Shanghai and a massive domestic sports meet dubbed China's "mini-Olympics" and a key testing ground for its young sporting talent.

    He first arrived in Beijing on Tuesday and inspected some of the construction sites of the Olympic venues, including the National Stadium and the National Aquatic Center.

    He left Nanjing for Xi'an then, where he met local government leaders and sports officials, and paid visits to some historical places like the Qin Dynasty Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum and the Shaanxi History Museum.

    Rogge also visited Qingdao in east China's Shandong province, which will be the sailing venue for the 2008 Olympics.

    "We have full confidence that China is very capable of staging big sports event. We are very confident that the 2008 Olympic Games will be a great success," he said. Enditem