Britain could revise its medals target for London 2012 following the team's success at the Beijing Olympics.

UK Sport, which provides the funding for elite sport, originally set a target of finishing fourth.

But that was achieved in Beijing, where Britain won 19 golds and 47 medals, the best haul for a century.

"It would be foolish not to aspire to even greater heights, especially as the host nation," said Lord Moynihan, head of the British Olympic Association.

The BOA chairman added: "Sure, we've got to see whether or not it is feasible to move to third place. We haven't made a decision on that.

"But this is not a National Organising Committee which is going to sit on its laurels, and nor are the athletes. We will want to make sure that we deliver the best for Britain in 2012, so we are going to be looking to go higher."

UK Sport will not decide upon a new target until the autumn, by which time it will have discussed the subject with each sport individually.

And UK Sport director of performance Liz Nicholl added: "If you had asked me this two weeks ago, I would have said 'impossible'.

"The phrase we used was: 'fourth in the medals is the best we can hope to achieve given a nation of our size'.

"But we look at these Games and what has happened to the Russians. If they are in reach then there's no reason to constrain our ambitions.

"In terms of 2012, nobody is going to be happy with the same again, but we need to be bringing that to life, probably through more medals.

"When we get back, we will be discussing 2012 targets with each of the individual sports. Then UK Sport will be setting a collective target as a result of that."