"The successful staging of the Asian Games not only makes Qatar proud, but also makes the whole of Asia proud," said Chinese sports minister Liu Peng on Friday.

Liu, who is also the president of the Chinese Olympic Committee, said the Beijing Olympic organizing committee (BOCOG) officials had been in Doha and "learned a lot of valuable experience and expertise".

Earlier in an interview with Qatar's television network Aljazeera, the Chinese sports chief said Qatar "made a miracle" by delivering a hugely successful Asian Games.

Qatar, which invested 2.8 billion dollars in the infrastructure for the Asian Games, will be all out for the right to host the 2016 Olympic Games.

He Zhenliang, China's most senior representative in the International Olympic Committee, said Qatar had raised its international status by hosting the Asian Games and other sports events.

"If Qatar wins the right to host the Olympic Games, that means the Olympics doesn't always belong to developed countries or big cities," said He.

He, however, reminded Qatar that its Olympic campaign would meet a lot of challenges.

"It's hard to predict whether Doha can win the bid," said He. "It took Beijing eight years to be an Olympic host after its first bid in 1993. It took London 60 years to host its second Olympics. And Paris' last Olympics was in 1924."

Qatari Olympic Committee secretary general Sheikh Saoud Bin Abdul Rahman Al-Thani said on Monday Qatar has all the elements needed to win the right to stage the 2016 Olympics, and if it fails it will keep trying until it wins.

Wei Jizhong, former general secretary of the Chinese Olympic Committee and a consultant to the BOCOG, said next Asian Games host faces huge pressure to be as good as Doha.

"Doha has raised the Asian Games to a new standard," said Wei. "Everyone is expecting Guangzhou (China) to do better, or at least as well as Doha. That will be very difficult."