Outgoing International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge says that the world sporting body will engage the people of Brazil to reassure them that the 2016 Rio Olympics will have a lasting legacy.

As mass protests dog the Confederations Cup in Brazil, which will also host the football World Cup next year, the Belgian noted that opinion polls showed that locals were overwhelmingly in favour of hosting the Olympics in four years' time.

Rogge said: "It is not a concern, but we are explaining to the people in Brazil and other countries that staging the Games will have a lasting good legacy. We are very respectful of what people want and do not want."

In town for the IOC Athletes' Forum which ended on Saturday, the 71-year-old spoke exclusively to The Straits Times in his first exit interview before he steps down from the most powerful job in world sport in September.

Rogge addressed a wide range of topics, such as his thoughts on the six candidates running for the presidency, the key challenges faced by the Olympic movement, and his future plans after leaving the IOC.

Read more of Rogge's interview in The Sunday Times.