updated 1:18 p.m. ET Feb. 26, 2006

TURIN, Italy - Former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani praised the security arrangements for the Turin Olympics on Saturday, saying they were a step ahead of those for the 2002 Salt Lake City Games and a model for all high-risk events.

Giuliani, who is leading the U.S. delegation at the Sunday closing ceremony of the Turin Olympics, addressed officials on a specially created committee to share information and coordinate security for the Turin Games.

“The reason why the Olympics here in Torino and in Italy have been so successful is because you’ve done such a good job of coordinating the security,” Giuliani said.

Giuliani said the measures in Turin had been an improvement even on the tight security at the Salt Lake City Winter Games — held just a few months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“This model is even an improvement over that and it will be very, very useful for world events in the future,” he said.

Officials from 26 countries — including the United States, Britain and Israel — are on the Turin committee, as well as top members of various national law enforcement agencies.

Some 15,000 police officers and soldiers were part of the Turin security effort; NATO has provided two AWACS surveillance planes to patrol over northern Italy during the games.

Giuliani’s visit was itself a high-security affair, taking place in the stark, whitewashed basement of the TOROC organizing committee headquarters.

Slide show   Emotional Moments Feb. 26: See photos of athletes' highs and lows from Sunday.

Reporters were asked to leave after the former mayor’s brief speech and some members of the committee waited for the media to be shown out before joining the proceedings that followed.

Giuliani, considered a potential contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, earned wide praise for his leadership during the Sept. 11 attacks in New York.

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