GENEVA, Sept 30, 2008 (AFP) - The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is not a 'panacea' for the world's problems, IOC president Jacques Rogge said Tuesday, shrugging off critics who accused the body of failing to get China to improve its human rights record.

Rather, Rogge gave a glowing review of numerous records set during the Beijing Olympics, calling the range of achievements 'exceptional'.

'We cannot expect the IOC to be a panacea,' he said, pointing out that the IOC was not a political organisation.

This year's Games were 'exceptional in terms of universality', he said, highlighting the impressive medal haul, infrastructure and participation rate.

Some 87 countries won medals this year compared to about 60 at the 2004 Athens Olympics, while 43 world records were also set, he noted.

The Games were also the first to be broadcast in high definition and had attracted between '20 to 30 percent of additional viewers compared to Athens', said Rogge.

Infrastructure-wise, Rogge also praised both the architecture of the stadia and quality of transport.

But when asked about violence in Tibet, freedom of expression in China as well as the difficult passage of the Olympic flame in several countries, Rogge would only say that 'the IOC is not a political organisation'.

'The Games are a catalyst for change. We think that they have a positive influence on societies around the world,' he said.

But Therese Obrecht, secretary general of the Swiss chapter of Reporters without Borders, accused the IOC of 'failing to impose principles contained in the Olympic charter'.

'Chinese repression was reinforced before the Games. The IOC was able to put pressure but did not do so,' she told AFP.

Several other human rights groups, including Amnesty International, had earlier accused the Chinese authorities of violating human rights during the Beijing Olympics and that the IOC had failed in its duty.

As the Games closed in Beijing, Amnesty had urged the IOC to build human rights 'indicators' into Olympic bids to ensure it did not 'repeat its mistakes' at future Games.