IOC president Jacques Rogge said the Games - for athletes 14-18 - could begin in the summer of 2010 followed by the winter version early in 2012.

 

Each event will take place every four years, with the summer Games lasting about 10 days.

 

 

 

The winter version will last about a week.

 

 

 

The proposal must be approved by the general assembly of the IOC in July in Guatemala City.

 

 

 

"There will be a total Olympic environment," Rogge said after the IOC executive board approved the idea.

 

 

 

Rogge said the focus would be on education.

 

 

 

"These Youth Olympic Games should not be seen as mini-Olympic Games," Rogge said.

 

"There will be competition, of course, but the main goal is not elitism.

 

The main goal is not competition as such. The main goal is to give the youngsters an education based on Olympic values: friendship, fair play, non-violence and a rejection of any form of doping.

 

 

 

"All these values that are, in a way, not easy to transmit to athletes in the normal Olympic Games."

 

 

 

Rogge said the Youth Olympics would be open to all Olympic sports, and would not include non-Olympic disciplines.

 

 

 

He said 3,000 athletes would participate in the summer version and 1,000 in the winter.

 

 

 

Rogge did not specify where the inaugural Youth Olympics would be held, but suggested there were many interested bidders.

 

 

 

He described a "total Olympic environment" complete with an athletes' village.

 

 

 

"We will have the entire protocol of the Olympic Games with the flame, with the torch, with the oath," Rogge said.

 

"It will be a preparation for the athletes for future Olympic Games, but with an education part that is different."

 

 

 

The event would be patterned after the European Olympic Festival, which Rogge established in 1991 when he was head of the European Olympic Committees.

 

The European event, held every other year, has summer and winter versions.