Italy: Crisis makes Rome's 2020 Olympic dream go up in smoke

Rome, 14 Feb. (AKI) - Italian prime minister Mario Monti crushed Rome's hope to host the 2020 Summer Olympic Games when he announced that his government would not support the bid.

The Rome government led by mayor Gianni Alemanno had asked Italy''s un-elected government to support the bid by guaranteeing that billions of euros worth of work would be paid in case the ancient capital city ran into financial difficulty.

"The government doesn't think it would be responsible with the condition Italy is it to guarantee" the bid, Monti told reporters in Rome on Tuesday.

Monti and a team of so-called technocrats took over the Italian government in November after Silvio Berlusconi resigned amid a debt crisis that increased the post of paying interest on the country's 1.9 trillion-euro debt load - the European Union's second-biggest after Germany.

Since taking office Monti has pushed through measures that boost taxes, make Italians work longer before qualifying for collecting pensions and opens protected sectors of the economy to more competition.

"Our government was called to operate in an emergency and asked for important sacrifices," Monti said.

Rome last hosted the Summer Olympics in 1960 when it was enjoying a post-World War II economic boom dubbed the Italian Economic Miracle. The economy is now faltering with output expected to shrink this year and stagnate in 2013.