Rome will feature in next year's Diamond League, the expanded athletics series which will replace the Golden League from 2010 onwards, the Italian Athletics Federation (FIDAL) announced on Monday.

Launched in 1980 as an opportunity for the Olympic champions from that year's games in Moscow to take on those athletes who had boycotted the event, the Rome meet soon became part of the Golden League.

In a bid to attract spectators back to the event at the city's Stadio Olimpico, the organizers are hoping to stage the event one month before its usual date of the second Friday in July.

The Diamond League will succeed the circuit of six European meets on the Golden League and is being expanded to take in events in the United States and China.

Athletics' world governing body the IAAF announced at the beginning of March that 12 meetings had already been confirmed for the Diamond League, with three more in Berlin, Rome and Doha to be decided on.

The 2009 Golden League opened on Sunday in Berlin.

(Xinhua News Agency June 16, 2009)