AFP - Winter Olympics chiefs insisted on Tuesday that the 2010 Games will finish with a balanced budget, sweet music for a country which reeled when Montreal needed 30 years to pay off its debts from the 1976 Summer Games.

The overall Winter Games costs top two billion Canadian dollars (1.65 billion US), but the city of Vancouver had to step in last year and provide funding for the 875 million Canadian dollar Olympic Athletes Village.

A further 955 million US dollars was needed for security.

Dave Cobb, the deputy chief executive of organising committee VANOC, said that the recent global recession had presented serious challenges.

"It hasn't been easy. It certainly required us to spend a lot more time watching our dollars than we would have preferred to," he said.

"We did generate most of our revenue early. We knew we had that money in the bank. And we didn't have to go through a cost-cutting exercise like many companies do.

"A number of our sponsors had serious difficulties but all our sponsors delivered. Every one of our partners that has a direct relationship with us has delivered."

Cobb added that VANOC were confident that the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) pledge of financial support would not be called upon after organisers suffered a 37 million dollar shortfall in 2009.

"We'll know when the Games are over. We know we have a commitment from them and I think we need it. That commitment allowed us to proceed with our plans," said Cobb.

"We don't spend what we don't have. We know that we can rely on that money being there.

"With that commitment from the IOC, combined with the contingency, we are very confident we will be able to balance our budget and we're hopeful that we won't need all or any of that (IOC commitment)."