Yuan claims that Rogge actively sought his influence to try to persuade him to help him win the support of Asia's members so he could succeed Juan Antonio Samaranch as President.

 

According to the former Sport Minister's book, Beijing won thanks a strategy to outwit its rivals based on the principles of ancient Chinese warfare.

 

The book, "Yuan Weimin and the Winds and Clouds of the World of Sports", tells how China's ruling Politburo approved a plan to put Rogge into the top job as a payoff to win European votes for Beijing.

 

In turn, that meant deceiving its fellow Asian nations, who hoped an Asian could lead the IOC and who believed they could count on Chinese support.

 

Yuan wrote: "Although we didn't have a written contract with Rogge we had a private understanding."

 

Beijing were awarded the 2008 Games and Rogge elected as President within a few days of each other at the IOC Session in Moscow in July 2001.

 

The election of both was no surprise as the time as both were heavy favourites.

 

Beijing finished ahead of Istanbul, Paris and Toronto to be awarded the Games in the vote on July 13 while Rogge defeated South Korea's Un-Yong Kim ,Canada's Dick Pound, Hungary's Pal Schmitt and America's Anita De Frantz three days later, collecting 59 of the 110 votes.

 

Yuan alleged he and Beijing's then Mayor, Liu Qi, went to see Rogge in an apartment in Geneva where the Belgian surgeon explained that one of his reasons to back the Chinese was that if Paris won the 2008 Games it would be bad for his campaign to be IOC President.

 

Yuan wrote: "We expressed our opinion ... that we hoped Rogge and his friends would support Beijing.

 

"Rogge said he hoped that China's three IOC delegates and China's friends would support him.

 

"Rogge told me he was very grateful to me for supporting him in his run for President and he would completely support China's bid to host the Olympics.

 

"But he hoped China would understand that he could not publicly express his stand and his opinion because he was chairman of the European Olympic Committee and both Paris and Istanbul were in Europe - but that none the less he would work for Beijing.

 

"Of course we made the promise that China would persuade its friends to support Rogge.

"In return, we got Rogge's support in winning over the European members."

  

Kevan Gosper, the Australian who was an IOC vice-president at the time and remamins chairman of the IOC's Press Commission, dismissd Yuan's account.

 

He said: "I don't have the facts to deny it, but it's not Jacques' style to do a deal like that.

 

"During the period of his campaign, he was very straight forward.

"I didn't hear of him making any individual deals or deals of that nature," Gosper said.

 

"He campaigned on his own merits and was as straight as an arrow.

 

"He was the clear favourite going in and he had a resounding victory.

 

"He didn't need to do deals with Yuan, that doesn't ring true to me.

 

"It sounds like Yuan big-noting himself."

 

Gosper supported Beijing's bid at the time.

 

He said: "Many of us [IOC members] felt it was Beijing's time.

 

"They had almost got there in 1993 and they were so much better prepared eight years later and there was a feeling that they deserved it."

 

Yuan was the executive President of the Beijing organising committee during last year's controversial Games, which were overshadowed by rows over human rights and Chinese occupation of Tibet.

 

Rogge earned worldwide criticism during the Olympic Torch Relay when there were protests against China's policies on human rights, particularly in London, Paris and San Francisco, but he refused to speak out against what was happening in the country.

 

The publication of the book has coincided with a visit to China by Rogge to attend the country's National Games and to hold meetings with the country's President Hu Jintao (pictured).

 

During the visit Hu expressed gratitude to Rogge for his key contributions to the success of the Beijing Games, and pledged greater cooperation with the IOC.

 

The book also claims that He Zhenliang, China's most senior IOC member, needed to be persuaded to back Rogge because he was lobbying for Kim, who just two years earlier had been implicated in the Salt Lake City bribery scandal that had rocked the Olympic Movement.

 

At the time of the 2001 vote in Moscow, it had been alleged that Kim's team were working heavily to try to persuade IOC members to ignore the claims of Beijing to host the 2008 Games and instead vote for Toronto to boost his chances of becoming the non-white leader of the Olympics.

 

But, in the end, Beijing won easily in the second round, polling 56 votes to Toronto's 22, Paris' 18 and Istanbul's nine.

 

Kim, meanwhile, earned 23 votes, making him the closest challenger to Rogge, who enjoyed the endorsement of Samaranch.

 

Kim was expelled from the IOC in 2005 after he was arrested on on embezzlement and bribery charges in South Korea and sentenced to two years in prison.

 

He was convicted of embezzling from the World Taekwondo Federation, the World Taekwondo headquarters and other sports organisations he controlled.

 

He was also convicted of embezzling $676,000 (£415,000) from money donated by South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co.

 

A spokesman for Rogge, who earlier this month at the IOC Session in Copenhagen was returned for another four-year term as President, which will include the London 2012 Olympics, when no-one stood against him, said he had been elected by a large majority in Moscow. 

 

He said: "Any insinuation that deals would have been made is absolutely false."

 

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]