South Korea was the last team to win gold in Olympic baseball.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Baseball needs to shed its image as a mainly American sport in order to win back a spot at the Olympics, according the sport's international federation president.

Riccardo Fraccari said Tuesday that baseball must rebrand itself as an international game, and that he sees great potential to expand in parts of Europe as well as Africa and the Middle East, where Iraq and Iran have approached him about investing in the sport.

"The message you have to give to people is that baseball is a global sport, not American," Fraccari told The Associated Press on the sidelines of the SportAccord International Convention in Dubai. "This was the mistake made in the past."

Fraccari also said he will work with softball to team up on a joint bid in 2013 to get back into the Olympics. Baseball and softball were dropped from the Olympic program after the 2008 Beijing Games.

Fraccari, an Italian who became president of the International Baseball Federation in December, said his top priority is returning baseball to the Olympics. He acknowledged that baseball is far more developed in the United States than elsewhere, but pointed to thriving leagues in Latin America, Japan and other parts of Asia as a sign that it is "a very global sport."

"Many times when people approach me, they talk as if it's an American sport," he said. "It's not true."

In 2005, softball and baseball became the first sports in 69 years to be voted out of the Olympics. Both lost appeals for reinstatement in 2006 and then set their sights on this year's vote to get back on the program for 2016.

Instead, International Olympic leaders voted to add golf and rugby to the 2016 Games, while softball, baseball and three other sports were left out.

At the time, then International Baseball Federation president Harvey Schiller expressed disappointment that softball had distanced itself from baseball following the 2005 vote, rejecting an offer of a joint Olympic bid. Instead, softball mounted a campaign to plant seeds for the sport in places like the Middle East and Africa and touted its clean doping record.

But that could be changing. With only one sport expected to be added in 2013, the International Softball Federation president Don Porter said his organization was "exploring the possibility" of a joint bid with baseball, though he said no decision has been taken.

The issue is expected to be on the agenda when officials from the two federations meet this week at the SportAccord.

After being dropped from the Olympics, baseball has focused on ramping up interest in the World Baseball Classic and the baseball World Cup. Many of the games in the 22-team World Cup were played in Europe, which Fraccari sees as the next big market for the sport.

"If you look at Europe, it is a big potential market," he said. "There is money. There are good organizations and a strong mentality of sport."

Fraccari said Iran and Iraq have approached him about starting baseball programs, and he said many other Middle Eastern countries also offer potential because they have good weather, American influence and available land.

"I think we have the opportunity to develop baseball there," he said.