But the new bid could soon run into problems because of the size of Doha, insidethegames can reveal.

The tiny oil and gas-rich Gulf state was controversially left off the short-list for the 2016 Games by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) despite technically being ranked placed equal third with favourites Chicago and ahead of Rio de Janeiro in its own evaluation.

Both Chicago and Rio were short-listed.

Jacques Rogge, the President of the IOC, later claimed that Doha's propsed date of October for the 2016 Games - chosen to avoid the fierce heat in Qatar at that time of the year - were outside the Olympics recommendation of July and August to avoid televised football in Europe and the NFL in the United States.

Doha officials claimed that they had checked with senior IOC officials before submitting their bid documents and been assured that they were okay.

David Owen revealed last month on insidethegames that two members of the IOC's ruling Executive Board – Sergey Bubka, chairman of the Athletes’ Commission, and Denis Oswald, president of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations – expressed reservations about Doha’s proposals on behalf of their respective constituencies which turned out to be crucial.

Doha's initial anger has now subsided and they are to try again for 2020, when their rivals could include another Asian candidate, Delhi.

A decision is not due to be made by the IOC the Host City for 2020 until 2013.

But Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the president of the QOC, said today that his country is still determined to host the Olympic Games.

He said: "His Highness said that Qatar will speak with the International Olympic Committee about the obstacles [to] Doha's bid for hosting the 2016 Olympic Games.

"Following such discussions and resolution of the obstacles with the IOC Executive Council, Qatar will bid for the 2020 Olympics Games according to the new criteria."

The bid, however, could hit a further hurdle following comments made by Rogge last month that he believed that only cities with a population of two million should be able to bid for the Olympics.

The population of the whole of Qatar is only 1.3 million, of whom 339,847 live in the capital.

Rogge said during an interview published last month: "We can no longer organise Summer Olympics in cities of less than 500,000 inhabitants.

"That is why we refused Leipzig [when they bid against London for the 2012 Olympics].

"There is a minimum requirement of around the two to 2.5 million mark. "

But many in the IOC consider Rogge's criteria to be unrealistic as even in the United States only Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and New York have populations of more than 2.5 million.