Moscow believes the odds on it hosting the 2012 Olympics have shortened dramatically after the IOC evaluation commission rounded off a four-day inspection tour by declaring the city's bid "very serious".

"We have to congratulate Moscow and its citizens for their hard work, dedication and passion for the Olympic movement," commission head Nawal El Moutawakel told reporters at the final news conference late on Thursday.

The Russian capital was the last stop on the IOC tour of the five short-listed cities. Paris is the early favourite, with London, Madrid and New York the other candidates.

Moscow had been considered an outsider in the race to stage the world's biggest sporting event, but the commission was impressed by the bid quality and peoples' enthusiasm after visiting the venues and proposed sites.

"We have witnessed that Moscow has a very serious bid," El Moutawakel said. "They don't have to be the outsiders."

The former Olympic champion from Morocco said the commission would head back to Lausanne to prepare a final report to be submitted to all IOC members.

"The competition was at an extremely high level. There are five very strong cities but there is only one winner," she said.

The IOC will announce the winning bid at its session in Singapore on July 6.

"We were given a serious examination by the IOC commission, but I think we've passed the test," Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov said.

Luzhkov pledged a $10 billion budget for the 2012 Games. "Most of the money will come from private investors, with about $4.5 billion from the city itself," he said.

With Olympic security one of the IOC's top priorities, Moscow's chances suffered a setback after an assassination attempt on one of Russia's leading businessmen dominated news broadcasts in the city this week.

Anatoly Chubais, head of Russia's state power monopoly, survived after assailants detonated a roadside bomb and sprayed his convoy with automatic gunfire on the final day of the IOC commission's stay in Moscow.