The head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has said Tokyo would be a “very strong” candidate to host the 2020 Summer Olympics, a Japanese media report said yesterday.

“Tokyo was having a good bid last time,” IOC president Jacques Rogge was quoted as saying in Lausanne on Friday.

“It did not win but the bid was very strong, so we considered that should there be (another Tokyo bid), we believed it was going to be a very strong bid.”

He also told Japan’s Kyodo news agency he would put Japanese Olympic Committee president Tsunekazu Takeda up for candidacy as an IOC member next year after the two incumbent Japanese members retire at the end of 2011.

Tokyo’s governor Shintaro Ishihara said last week his city has ambitions to stage another Summer Olympics in 2020 – which would be its first since 1964 – as a boost to Japan’s recovery from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

In late 2009, Tokyo, Madrid and Chicago lost to Rio de Janeiro in the race to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Tokyo said it spent some 15 billion yen ($180 million) on its 2016 bid, which pushed a plan to stage a compact and “green” Olympics by reducing carbon emissions from Games-related projects.

On Thursday, Takeda invited Tokyo to bid for the 2020 Games and said his organisation would seek to stage Olympic football matches in rebuilt disaster-hit areas.

Candidates for 2020 must submit their bids to the IOC by September 1 and the host city will be chosen in Buenos Aires in September 2013.

Rome has declared it will run, while Madrid is also expected to throw its hat into the ring.

On Japanese membership of the IOC, Rogge said: “My right is to make the proposal and I will make the proposal of Mr Takeda because I trust him, because I believe he is a very good man and he will be a great asset within the IOC.”