TORONTO, AP:

Toronto Mayor John Tory says Canada's largest city will make a decision "very quickly" whether to bid for the 2024 Olympics.

Tory did nothing to quash speculation that Toronto will bid and use the ongoing Pan American Games as a springboard.

Five cities have already said they will bid: Boston; Budapest, Hungary; Hamburg, Germany; Paris; Rome.

"We have to sit down right after these games and prepare every bit of analysis - on the finances, on the benefits to the city, on the amount of publicity it will give us," Tory said.

Canada has spent about CAD$2.5 billion (US$1.9 billion) to organise the Pan Am Games - the most expensive in history - and has several Olympic-style venues in place. It has spent 10 times more than Winnipeg did to organise the 1999 Pan Am Games.

Toronto is facing a tight deadline. Candidates must make an official bid with the International Olympic Committee by September 15.

"We don't have any choice but to get it done very quickly," Tory said.

Toronto has failed twice with recent Olympic bids. It lost out to Atlanta for the 1996 Games and to Beijing for 2008. Also etched in the country's memory are the 1976 Montreal Games, which ran up a CAD$1.5 billion (US$1.1 billion) debt that took the city 30 years to pay off.

"I'll be honest. I don't want to be the mayor that presides over some kind of modern-day record for bidding and losing," Tory said. "We want to make a decision - to do it or not - and then campaign our little hearts out, and campaign to win."

Marcel Aubut, the president of the Canadian Olympic Committee, has said Toronto should consider bidding.