SRI LANKA'S President broke a promise to the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, over duelling bids for the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Ms Gillard hosted senior officials from across the Commonwealth for a sports breakfast yesterday. In the audience were bid teams for the Sri Lankan city of Hambantota and Australia's Gold Coast, as well as members of the 71 Commonwealth Games associations that have a vote.

The vote will be decided at an assembly in St Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean on November 11.

Ms Gillard made a brief mention of the Gold Coast as having put in a bid, saying Australia would host an ''outstanding Games''.

However, Sri Lanka's President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, whose country is also hosting the next Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, used his 10-minute speech to make a concerted pitch for the sports event on behalf of his nation.

Mr Rajapaksa said his nation wanted to mirror Malaysia, which hosted the Games in 1998 and witnessed massive economic expansion in the following years.

It was later confirmed that the two leaders had an agreement, made through the Commonwealth Games Federation, not to make big pitches for their Games at the breakfast and limit themselves to a ''casual speech''.

The chair of Australia's bid, Mark Stockwell, praised Ms Gillard's speech, saying she ''spoke beautifully''.

''The Prime Minister spoke of the importance of the Commonwealth Games and sport. The message was 'we're locked in for a fair dinkum fight','' Mr Stockwell said.