Rogge arrived there, in China's Jiangsu province, on an inspection visit.

Nanjing, the former capital city of China, hosted the 10th Chinese National Games in 2005 and was awarded the Youth Olympics in February after beating rival Poznan.

There has been some criticism that Nanjing was chosen because of fears the event will get lost in a city of nearly 10 million.

In contrast, Singapore, which hosted the inaugural Youth Olympics, which finished last Thursday (August 26), has a population of under five million.

Rogge said: "The Games, definitely, will further the development of the city, but it has to be sustainable.

"I will give you a simple example.

"If you build a sports venue, you should not build it too big, you can always fit it at the occasion of the Olympic Games, but then the needs for such a big building might not be necessary for the citizens of the city."

Rogge also urged Nanjing organisers to learn the lessons of Singapore.

He said: "Nanjing should take all the good points of Singapore and adapt them to the local situation.

"One of the successes from Singapore is that they introduce young people and give them responsibilities.

"The Organising Committee was a young committee.

"The volunteers were very young, well-trained, very kind.

"On the other side, we had asked International Federations and International Olympic Committee to send young judges, young delegates, and it was a very young atmosphere, and that's what you need to have."

Nanjing, which plans to hold the Games between August 16 and 28 in 2014, were warned that they must not grow complacent.

He said: "Four years pass extremely fast.

"The Organising Committee started with a very good organisation, very sound strategy.

"I can feel in meeting with people of Nanjing that they are in love with this project.

"I spoke with many Chinese friends and I was at the [Nanjing Foreign Languages School] this afternoon.

"You can see the dynamics that comes out of Nanjing to organise this."

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