At least six leading Argentine companies are sponsoring the April 11 visit planned by the Olympic flame to Argentina capital Buenos Aires, local media said yesterday.

These are Brazil-owned cement company Loma Negra, Italian-Argentine joint-venture Telecom, Aeropuertos Argentina 2000, saddling company La Martina, stolen-car finder America Tracer, and Brazilian sports goods manufacturer Kappa.

The International Olympic Committee has 866 sponsors for the flame's world wide journey including Coca Cola, Kodak, McDonald's, Samsung, Atos Origin, Omega, Visa, Panasonic, Lenovo, General Electric and Manulife.

Martin Sorrell, president of world wide publicity group WPP, said that many firms had sponsored the flame in a bid to make their presense known in China, which will host the games.

Argentine Olympic Committee advisor and publicity specialist Cristina Atance said that soccer and basketball will get the most attention in Argentina because the country won gold for both in the 2004 Athens Olympics.

A group of Argentine companies, led by Telecom's Gerardo Werthein, will show off their products during the games. Telecom is also making contact with Chinese sportswear manufacturer Li Ning, the main sponsor of Argentina's basketball team.

In 2004, Argentine was the sixth largest consumer of Olympic television coverage, with more than 20 hours per capita.