The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced the new charges, which could amount to more than $600,000, on Sunday.

Applicant cities have to pay $100,000 by 31 May just to qualify as candidates.

And cities officially selected to bid for the Games at an IOC meeting in August will have to find another $500,000.

"We are now waiting for the assessment of applicant cities, after which they will pay a fee of $500,000," said IOC director general Francois Carrard at a news conference in Kuala Lumpur.

IOC sports director Gilbert Felli said the fee would cover the training and provisions of "documents, seminars, knowledge transfer and other expertise" to the applicants.

"Because we will provide them with all the information, it'll probably be cheaper than if they got it from hired consultants, which they normally do," he said.

Felli said the move was also designed to stop "non-committed" cities from bidding.

"It is not the purpose for the fee, but it is certainly hoped to discourage cities from applying purely for publicity's sake," he said, adding that all the applicant cities had paid up.

Earlier, Felli said the committee had made a decision to bar all applicant cities from carrying out promotional activities until 10 January, 2003.

"We received a request by all cities because the cost to promote is a lot.

"If one country starts, others have to follow, so we solve it by saying everyone cannot carry out promoting activities until a fixed date," he said.