LONDON — Despite the loss of another global sponsor, the International Olympic Committee remains hopeful of surpassing the $1 billion mark in sponsorship revenues for the next four-year cycle.

Gerhard Heiberg, head of the IOC marketing commission, said Tuesday that he is in talks with several companies about filling one or two more spots in the worldwide sponsorship program for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games and 2012 London Olympics.

The IOC confirmed Monday that Johnson & Johnson, the U.S.-based health care conglomerate, would not renew its top level sponsorship after 2008.

Johnson & Johnson was one of 12 companies in the worldwide sponsorship program, known as TOP, paying up to $80 million for rights to use the Olympic name and logo in its advertising. Kodak and Lenovo also announced in the past year that they are not renewing.

"Of course, it is a disappointment when some of our partners do not renew," Heiberg said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "We understand times change, companies change, they change strategy. It is to be expected that we have a certain rotation of TOP sponsors."

The 2005-08 program generated nearly $900 million in revenues. With nine companies already on board for the 2009-13 cycle, Heiberg said he hopes to sign up at least one more sponsor next year to break the overall $1 billion mark.

"We still hope that will be our figure," he said. "We are very close. We need one more to go over. I would rather have 11 (sponsors), but I will be happy with 10."

Heiberg said he is holding off negotiations because of the global financial crisis but hopes to complete a deal in the first quarter of 2009.

"We are in discussions with several companies in different product lines, and we are pursuing this of course," he said. "In the current financial climate, it is not the best time to conclude big deals at the moment, so we are taking it a little easy."

Heiberg said there were no plans to replace Johnson & Johnson's health care category, which could be moved to the national sponsorship level for Vancouver and London. He declined to say which categories were being considered.

The global sponsors remaining for 2009-13 are Acer, Atos Origin, Coca-Cola, GE, McDonald's, Omega, Panasonic, Samsung and Visa. The Panasonic and Samsung deals run through 2016, and Coke is signed up through 2020.