Instead he will stand to become a vice-president, he has revealed. 

Coates, who turns 63 on Tuesday (May 7), had been touted as a darkhorse by some experts but claimed that it would be hard for an Australian to ever hold the top Olympic job because of the lack of IOC members in Oceania.

"We don't have as big a constituency," Coates told Australian Associated Press.

"There's only five or six of us in this this part of the world, it is more difficult for all of us."

Coates, President of the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) since 1990, is one of the world's most experienced and respected international sports administrators.

He was vice-president of Sydney 2000, joined the IOC in 2001 and has been a member of the ruling Executive Board since 2009, a four-year term that is due to expire this year.

Coates, a lawyer by profession, is also President of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, a post he won in 2010 when he beat fellow IOC member Dick Pound in the election.

Germany's Thomas Bach remains the favourite to replace Rogge when the IOC votes on a new President at its Session in Buenos Aires on September 10. 

But Singapore's Ng Ser Miang is seen as a serious contender.

"It has been a Eurocentric body, but both East and West Asia are becoming very strong in sport and very powerful in sport, in the administration too," said Coates.

"It's moving a little bit away from Europe but the headquarters are still in Europe."