Six cities have officially lodged bids to host the 2020 Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said late on Friday.
The cities that have shown interest are Baku, Doha, Istanbul, Madrid, Rome and Tokyo.
The deadline for bidding was at midnight Thursday. The IOC will vote on the host city for the 2020 edition on Sep 7, 2013 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The cities will now undergo a technical review leading to the IOC drawing up a shortlist in May next year, the Xinhua reported.
In January 2013, the candidate cities should submit bid documents to the IOC which will then send its evaluation committee to each city between February and April 2013 to assess their respective merits.
The 2012 Olympics will be staged in London and the 2016 edition in Rio de Janeiro.