BERLIN • Tokyo Olympics organisers are expecting to welcome international spectators at next year's Games despite the Covid-19 pandemic, International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach said on Wednesday.

In March, the Japanese government and the IOC postponed the 2020 Games to July 23-Aug 8 next year because of the coronavirus.

"We are working on the basis of course there will be international spectators (in Tokyo)," Bach told a conference call at the end of an executive board meeting.

"What we do not know is if we can fill stadia to full capacity or if other measures would have to be applied."

He added that the resumption of some Japanese sports leagues had been a positive sign.

"We saw a very encouraging start in some of the leagues in Japan in the past weeks with a good number of spectators," he said.

"We have to see again with the additional tools at our disposal next year how we can fill the stadia and how much we can fill them."

Visitors to the Olympics usually book their tickets many months or years in advance but in Tokyo's case the IOC will have a clearer picture only by the end of this year.

"We are here with a lot of uncertainties," the IOC's Olympic Games executive director Christophe Dubi said. "We have not established any timelines. It is premature to say at this stage we have to have such a decision or such a decision.

"At the end of the year we will have a lot of clarity, what to do from an operational standpoint. By December we have a clearer picture."

Meanwhile, the IOC is investigating claims by Belarus athletes they are being discriminated against because of their political views.

Belarus has been rocked by protests since an Aug 9 election that confirmed another term for President Alexander Lukashenko, who is also president of his country's national Olympic committee (NOC).

"We are very concerned about the information we are getting," Bach said, adding that the IOC had corresponded with the national committee and would now also look into scholarship and other funds that had been directed to Belarus and whether they had reached the individuals they were meant for.

"Non-discrimination is an essential value of the Olympic movement. This is why we are taking it so seriously. The executive board... decided we will strengthen our investigation to determine whether the NOC is fulfilling obligation as per the Olympic charter."

Mr Lukashenko is struggling to contain nearly two months of street protests and more than 13,000 people have been arrested and many opposition leaders jailed.

In another separate issue, World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said competitors should be able to "take the knee" on the podium at the Tokyo Olympics, following an outcry over moves to ban protests.

A ban on demonstrations at the Games, issued in January, has come under extra scrutiny since the Black Lives Matter movement flooded sports following the police killing of unarmed black man George Floyd in Minneapolis in May.

Coe told reporters in Tokyo: "The athletes are a part of the world and they want to reflect the world they live in.

"And that is for me perfectly acceptable, as long as it is done with complete respect for other competitors, which I think most athletes properly understand."

The IOC has hinted it may be willing to soften its stance and is backing discussions led by the Olympic Athletes Commission to consider ways of allowing "dignified" support for anti-racism initiatives.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS