Forever Friends, a song written by famed musicians Giorgio Moroder, Kong Xiangdong and Michael Kunze, is bidding to become the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games theme, sources said.

An English version of the song's music video finished shooting last month in Beijing and was expected to be on television and the Internet by the beginning of next year.

"The song meets the requirements of the Beijing Olympic Games," said Zhao Dongming, the culture department director of the Beijing Organizing Committee of Olympic Games (BOCOG). "It is heartwarming and has broad appeal."

"We hope to impress people the world over who come to the Olympic Games with this beautiful song at the opening ceremony."

The lyrics go "You've tasted bitter defeat and the sweet success/ You want it all and you settle for nothing less/ You've tried harder than the rest/ You've become one of the best/ This is the time you'll remember for all your life".

However, BOCOG officials said it was still too early to say if the tune had become the Olympic theme song as the solicitation campaign ends in March.

Moroder wrote the official theme songs Reach out for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and Hand in Hand for the 1988 Seoul Olympics. The Italian, who produced Donna Summer's disco classic Love to Love You Baby and many other pop hits, said he wanted to show "determination to act hand-in-hand and heart-to-heart" in Forever Friends.

The father of Euro disco said he had used some rhythms of the folk song Liuyanghe and traditional Chinese musical instruments in Forever Friends to bring Chinese features into it.

Kong, the famed Chinese pianist, said listeners would feel harmony, enthusiasm, devotion and joy in the song and he hoped it would become the Games theme.

The lyrics were written by Germany's Kunze, while popular singers Coco Lee and Sun Nan performed the song in the music video.

The worldwide solicitation for a Games theme song will conclude on March 10. A prize of 20,000 yuan (about US$2,700) is being offered to each of the 25 winners selected by a panel of professional musicians.

The theme will be unveiled 100 days before the Games opening ceremony, the BOCOG said.

The Beijing Olympics take place from August 8 to 24.

(Xinhua News Agency December 6, 2007)