LAHORE, Aug 18: International Olympic Committee (IOC) has officially invited Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) to take part in the 27th Olympic Games to be held at Athens, Greece from Aug 13 to 29, 2004.

This was stated by POA secretary, Mohammad Latif Butt, while talking to reporters on Monday. Latif said that Pakistan had decided to compete in 11 different games including hockey, boxing, wrestling, weightlifting, shooting, sailing, badminton, table tennis, tennis, athletics and swimming, but subject to qualification.

He said that swimming and athletics had qualified as two wild cards each, out of six awarded to POA by IOC, as the two disciplines were considered mandatory as Olympic sports.

He said that the remaining two cards would be available for all other federations if they approached their respective international federations and exerted their efforts to utilise the same.

POA secretary, pointed out that he had instructed the 11 federations expected to participate in the Athens Games to contact their respective Asian bodies for the qualifying competitions to secure their chances for the Olympiad.

The federations, he added, had further been urged to contact the Pakistan Sports Board to obtain financial assistance  for participation in the said qualifying tournaments.

He said that Pakistan was likely to qualify in boxing and hockey and others would have to make efforts to get entry.

The secretary specified that he had not received any official communication from the federal government allowing POA to launch a campaign for regaining the ninth SAF Games.

The games were to be held in Pakistan in 2003, but had been postponed twice before being finally shifted to another venue.

The federal government had recently decided to get back the games as Sri Lanka had refused to hold it in place of Pakistan.