Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti has today withdrawn Rome as a candidate to host the 2020 Olympic Games, describing a planned bid as "irresponsible".
Just a day before the deadline for submitting host city bids to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Italian leader decided the current economic crisis would make such a financial commitment untenable.
"After a difficult evaluation we've arrived at the unanimous conclusion that the government believes it would not be responsible in the current conditions in Italy to take on these guarantees," said Monti in a press conference.
"We don't feel capable of taking on a financial commitment that could burden the Italian finances over the coming years. "In another moment of history we could have carried the risk, but not now," he added.
The contenders for the 2020 Games are now Madrid, Baku, Doha, Istanbul and Tokyo. Rome would have needed a letter of commitment from the government in order to submit it's bid officially with the IOC.
Mario Pescante, the president of the Promotion Committee for Rome 2020, admitted this was a bitter pill to swallow. "We've lost a great opportunity but we can only accept the government's decision, there's a lot of bitterness," he said.
"The government's decision was well thought out and was due exclusively to economic motives. Our project for Rome 2020 was very serious but the government was immovable on the accounts. It's a shame because it was a unique opportunity not least to say to the young that we have big ambitions," he added.
Pescante also suggested that any future bid for Rome, which last hosted the Games in 1960, may now be off the cards for some time.
Italian Minister for Tourism and Sport Piero Gnudi, who last month had not given organisers much encouragement, praised the government's decision. "It was a very tough decision but we shared the problems there are and we've approved our president's decision," said Gnudi.
Rome hosted the Olympics in 1960 and planned to use many of the same venues if it was awarded the 2020 Games.
