Indonesian athletes competing at the Beijing Olympic Games may receive little direct support from the 8,000 Indonesians living in China due to a limited availability of tickets.

Indonesian Ambassador to China Sudrajat told journalists in Beijing on Friday that tickets to the badminton finals, in which Indonesia is expected to contest medals, had been sold out six months ago.

"However, there will be some Indonesians who have already gotten the tickets and they will support our team individually," he said.

"Even the Chinese people had to queue for 18 hours; some of them even camped outside the ticket booth to buy the tickets. The Chinese are very enthusiastic to support the Olympics."

Indonesia is sending 24 athletes to compete in seven sporting events. The largest contingent is the badminton team, which is being tipped as the country's best hope for seeing gold.

The country's mixed doubles teams of Nova Widiyanto and Lilyana Natsir and the men's doubles team of Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan are the top seeds in their respective events.

"It is difficult for the embassy to arrange mass support for our sportsmen. I hope our shuttlers, when they reach the final, can get full support from fellow sportsmen," said Sudrajat.

"But we all can easily support our athletes just by wearing batik clothes. I recommend you all to wear batik."

Of the 8,000 Indonesian students and workers in China, few will have the chance to attend the quadrennial event.

Indonesia will also compete in weightlifting, sailing, track and field, shooting, archery and swimming.

Sudrajat said Indonesia had sent athletes competing in wushu, fencing, table tennis swimming and diving to train in China.

"However, I haven't seen any badminton players train here. We have to acknowledge the Chinese's success especially after their winning the Thomas Cup and Uber Cup this year," he said.

China is also the holder of the Sudirman Cup mixed team championship.

"Sports ministers from the two countries have conducted talks and have shown their interests in cooperation on sports," Sudrajat said.

"We hope all sports in Indonesia can be as advanced as in China. In Indonesia, sports have not been made a part of national character building.

"We haven't realized that sports can also upgrade our image on the international stage," he added.

Sudrajat said Chinese medalist received incentives from their government, including pensions. They could even be declared national heroes and become the country's international mascots, he added.

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