Qatar's campaign to place itself squarely at the centre of the international sporting world comes to fruition when the 15th and biggest Asian Games open on Friday.

Visitors walk outside the Khalifa Stadium a day before the start of the 15th Asian Games in Doha November 30, 2006.[Reuters]

The gas-rich Gulf Emirate has pumped $2.8 billion into creating a state-of-the-art sports city for what they hope will be one of the greatest sporting events of the new millennium.

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"Finally we will see the results of our years of planning. Tomorrow the eyes of the world will be upon us," Games spokesman Ahmed Abdulla Al Khulaifi said on Thursday.

Occupying a peninsula on the Gulf of Arabia, Qatar was a cluster of small fishing and pearling villages until the discovery of huge reserves of oil and natural gas.

With a population of around 800,000 -- more than half of whom are temporary immigrant workers -- the crowds are unlikely to be huge for the 424 events in 39 sports taking place over the 16 days of the Games.

It remains, however, the largest sporting event ever held in the Middle East and the Qataris are hoping it will prove to be a launchpad for a successful bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Mirroring the continent's economic boom, the Asian Games has mushroomed since 500 athletes from 11 countries competed in six sports in New Delhi in 1951.

More than half a century later, around 10,000 athletes and officials from 45 countries are expected to parade around the Khalifa stadium in the opening ceremony on Friday night.

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