The Local Organising Committee will use the Beijing Olympics in China next year as one of the final major sporting events to learn from for the 2010 World Cup.

Irvin Khoza, chairman of the LOC, said they will be sending a delegation to Beijing to be attached to the Olympics organising committee.

"We want our people to learn more about hosting major international competitions. It [the delegation] will also deal with issues relating to the environment," he said.

"The experience of the Germany 2006 World Cup finals and China will help us a great deal in our preparations to host a successful World Cup."

Khoza said they were happy with the progress in all nine host cities in terms of the preparations for both the 2009 Confederations Cup and the World Cup.

"There is a load of visible work being done in all the host cities, the process of building state-of-the-art stadiums is under way.

"On the other hand, all the existing stadiums to be used for the two tournaments are being upgraded to meet Fifa requirements.

"The support of the South African government has been great," Khoza said.