Bristol University claims to have struck a deal with the Kenyan Olympic Committee and that its chairman Kip Keino will visit the city tomorrow to sign a collaboration agreement.

It will be co-signed by the Lord Mayor Peter Abraham at the Mansion House, before a dinner hosted by the Uiversity at Royal Fort House.

The agreement, supported by the city's professional and amateur sporting bodies - Business West, Destination Bristol, the City Council and the education sector - is the basis of a partnership between Bristol and Kenya.

The multi-faceted relationship will embrace a wide range of educational, business, cultural and sporting links that will benefit all involved.

The deal with Bristol and the Kenyan Olympic team will run over a four-year period starting at the end of the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Bob Reeves, director of sport, exercise and health at the University and who is on the West of England Olympics steering committee, has brokered the deal thanks to his close ties with Kenya, which he visits every year when he takes a rugby team to tour there.

"I am sure that everyone in Bristol will be thrilled at this development, and I hope that we can all give Kip a really warm welcome," he said.

Abraham said: "We feel very strongly that Bristol should host an Olympic team and the Kenyans will be quite marvellous.

"They might not be the biggest team but they will get gold medals and it's an exciting prospect."

Keino is the father of Kenyan athletics having won gold in the 1,500 metres at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City and four years later he took the 3,000 metre steeplechase gold at the Munich Games.