Rome and Venice registered their interest in staging the Olympics earlier this month. The Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) must decide which will be the nation's candidate city if the government backs a bid for the Games.
"We want to bid for the Games. We'll hold a news conference in Rome Thursday to unveil all the details," a spokesman for the Sicilian Regional Government said yesterday.
Were Madrid to have won the right to bid the 2016 Olympics, it would have meant two European Summer Games in succession following London 2012 and hugely reduced the chances of a third straight Olympics coming to the continent.
Rome hosted the Summer Olympics in 1960.
