15th Asian Games

DOHA - The Doha Asian Games were officially closed Friday after 15 days with a two-hour ceremony themed around the Arabian Nights.

China dominated the event, winning 165 gold medals. South Korea was second with 58 and Japan third with 50.

The next Asian Games are in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou in 2010.

Host Qatar staged a spectacular closing ceremony at the Khalifa Stadium to mark the end of the Asian Games.

It drew the curtain on the 15-day multi-sports event which China dominated.

The two-hour extravaganza was themed around the famous Middle Eastern tale Arabian Nights, but the atmosphere was more of a giant party as athletes, spectators and organisers celebrated the success of the Games.

There was double reason to celebrate with Qatar winning football gold just hours before the ceremony, defeating Iraq for the final title of the Games, bringing wild party scenes from the partisan crowd filling the stadium.

South Korean schoolboy swimmer Park Tae-Hwan was then announced as the most valuable player of the Games.

The shy 17-year-old upstaged rivals China and Japan battling for supremacy in the pool by winning three golds, a silver and three bronze medals.

Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, president of the Olympic Council of Asia, declared the Games closed, handing the Olympic Council of Asia flag to the mayor of Guangzhou city in southern China, the hosts of the next Games in 2010 who then staged their own mini cultural performance.

"May the youth of Asia ever celebrate the Asian Games in the spirit of brotherhood and for the good of humanity," he said.

The ceremony was another success for Australian artistic director David Atkins and his team who received praise for their three-hour opening ceremony on December 1.

Atkins was also responsible for the opening and closing ceremonies at the Sydney Olympics.