Panama's Irving Saladino, the reigning long jump world champion, told media yesterday that he would start training in mid-October for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Saladino, 24, arrived from the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo on Tuesday night to rest and recover from an injury sustained at the Rieti Grand Prix in Italy, which will keep him from competing internationally for two months.

"It is a micro-injury of 0.6 miligrams, so it is not large," Saladino said about the injury at a press conference after Panama's president, Martin Torrijos, had offered him a diplomatic passport. However, he said that doctors had prescribed him three weeks of complete rest.

"I need to rest, but I will have to do some recovery exercises," he said.

At Bolivar Palace, the seat of Panama's Foreign Ministry, and Casa Amarilla, the seat of the presidency, Saladino had shown the nation's president and its foreign minister the gold medals he won at the Pan American Games in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro and at the World Championships in the Japanese city of Osaka.

Speaking about the medal, Saladino said "I am very happy about it. I have to keep on giving my best so that the Panamanian people continue giving me these gestures of affection".

Asked about possibly nationalizing himself as a citizen of Brazil, where he lives and trains, he said he had never considered doing so.

"I have always said that I am Panamanian and that I will remain so," said Saladino.