At 1pm local time in Lausanne, Switzerland, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will announce which cities applying for host of the 2014 Winter Olympics will continue to the second round of the selection process.

Bulgaria's capital Sofia is among the seven cities which have submitted bids. The other cities include Salzburg in Austria, Pyeongchang in South Korea, Sochi in Russia, Jaca in Spain, Almaty in Kazakhstan and Borjomi in Georgia.

According to unofficial information, only three to five bids would be included in the shortlist, expected today, and Sofia had good chances to be among the selected cities.

The index Around the Rings, ranking candidate cities, placed Sofia on the fourth position. The city moved one position up in the ranking list, BGNES Sport agency reported.

The 15 members of IOC executive board will make their decision based on the reports of the working groups, which had been examining the bids for months.