Britain has set a target of eighth place in the medals table at the Olympic Games in Beijing, MPs were told yesterday. John Steele, the chief executive of UK Sport, also confirmed to the Public Accounts Committee that Britain would seek to retain second place in the Paralympics.

It is the first time that a firm public commitment has been made to an overall performance of the team at the Games in August and runs counter to the philosophy of the British Olympic Association (BOA), which believes that a target may put medal prospects under too much pressure.

The BOA has always maintained that Beijing should be seen as a stepping-stone to London 2012, where the ambition is to finish fourth in the Olympics medals table and second in the Paralympics. “It is in no way a soft target and will require a step change in performance across British Olympic sport,” Steele said of the objectives for China.

Britain finished tenth in the table in Athens four years ago with a total of 30 medals - nine gold, nine silver and 12 bronze. Individual targets for each sport in Beijing will be announced in July.

The ability of each sport to hit its target will play a part in how much money it receives for the four-year cycle leading to the 2012 Games. Those that miss their targets and show no potential to improve performance or produce medals in 2012 are likely to have their funding cut.

UK Sport, which distributes lottery cash to elite athletes, will review the funding structure in the autumn before presenting its findings to its board by the new year. Sports will learn what resources they have for 2012 by April 2009. Britain would need to double their gold-medal tally from Athens to achieve fourth place, overtaking Australia, who won 17 golds, 16 silvers and 16 bronzes in 2004.

The slicing of a £600million package promised for elite sport by Gordon Brown in his Budget of March 2006 comes as MPs expressed their concern that a sixth of the money is expected to come from the private sector.

Edward Leigh, the chairman of the committee, said that in the absence of any detailed plans about how the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) would raise the extra £100million needed to fulfil Britain's Olympic ambitions, he believed that it was “optimistic”. This year the DCMS appointed Fast Track, the sports consultant, to devise ways to raise the cash from the commercial sector.

However, there are doubts in the industry that the sponsorship market is deep enough, given the economic climate and the competition from the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (Locog), which owns the key Olympic brand rights and is seeking to raise £650million to help to cover £2billion of operational costs during the Games.

A report last month by the National Audit Office, the public spending watchdog, gave warning that Britain's target of finishing fourth in 2012 was at risk because of a funding strategy that depended on private money that “may not materialise”. Jonathan Stephens, the DCMS permanent secretary, said: “It is a challenging target and there are no guarantees, but I think it is realistic and the right time to start raising it is after Beijing.”

Britain's table talk

Atlanta (36th, 1 gold, 8 silver, 6 bronze)

Sydney (10th, 11 gold, 10 silver, 7 bronze

Athens (10th, 9 gold, 9 silver, 12 bronze

Beijing (8th?, 10 gold, 11 silver, 11 bronze

(based on Italy's eighth place in Athens)

London (4th?, 17 gold, 16 silver, 16 bronze

(based on Australia's fourth place in Athens)

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