Belarus, which has a population of less than 10 million, finished 16th overall at Beijing in 2008 with 17 medals, including four gold, and three in Vancouver at this year's Winter Olympics, one of each colour, to come 17th.

Lukashenko, who was reappointed as the President of the country's National Olympic Committee earlier this month, has even calculated how many medals the team needs to win to achieve his goals.

He said: "We have the conditions to make it happen and enough people.

"You should win 25 medals at the summer Olympics, including five gold ones.

"We should aim for the figure.

"I don’t ask 100 medals of you.

"Give me 25 at the summer Olympics and up to five at the Winter Olympics."

France finished tenth in the medals table in Beijing with a total of 41 medals, including seven gold.

Belarus has won a total of 73 medals, including 11 gold, since it made its Olympic debut at Lillehammer at the 1994 Winter Games following the break-up of the Soviet Union.

But Lukashenko believes the country has even greater potential especially after last year he authorised a massive injection of 297.4 billion rubles (£60.2 million/$92.9 million) into preparations for London 2012.

Belarus medallists are also set to be rewarded financially for their performances.

Those that were successful at Beijing and Vancouver were were awarded $100,000 (£64,000) for gold, $50,000 (£32,000) for silver and $30,000 (£19,000) for bronze.

Lukashenko said: "We have the conditions for Belarus to make a breakthrough similar to China’s and [South] Korea’s."


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