Berlin - IAAF president Lamine Diack says he is against the idea of reducing the length of the athletics world championships from nine to six days as demanded by media broadcasters.

"I am against it. We have the world championships for the

athletes, not for television," Diack told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa in Berlin, where this year's championships take place August 15-23.

Diack said he expected the sport of athletics to build on the success of last year's Beijing Olympics by delivering a real sporting festival in Berlin in five months time.

"We saw at the Beijing Games that people were really passionate and that passion lasted for nine days," he said.

"It won't work to have a six-day world championships in Daegu, South Korea, in 2011 followed by nine days at the 2012 London Olympics."

The IAAF will soon have to renegotiate many of its marketing and broadcasting deals that were in first put in place for the 1999 world championships in Sevilla, Spain, and Diack admitted it remained uncertain whether the same sponsors would continue in place.

"Berlin is a stage for me. Here we can show our sponsors what value we can bring," he said. (dpa)