Olympic and three-times world champion Maurice Greene is ready to "shock the world" when he runs the 100 metres in this month's world championships, the sprinter said on Wednesday.

"A lot of people don't think I will be able to win again, but I think I am about to shock the world," Greene told Reuters in an interview.

"I think 9.94 could win" Monday's final, the three-time champion said, "but I'm going to run 9.80-something."

The championships begin in the French capital on Saturday.

Greene would not predict a world record but said: "the world record could (be broken) at any time you step on the track depending how you run."

He lost his world record to fellow American Tim Montgomery last September when Montgomery clocked 9.78 seconds in Paris. Greene has repeatedly said that he will take the record back someday.

"But I am not thinking about a world record right now," he said, "all I am thinking about is winning. Nothing else matters to me this season but winning the world championship."

British European champion Dwain Chambers has been running well recently and is considered by many to be the major threat to Greene.

But Greene, who is seeking an unprecedented fourth world 100-metre title, would make no predictions about who would be in Monday's final.

"I couldn't even tell you," he said. "It's hard, but it doesn't matter to me."

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Only Greene and nine-times Olympic champion Carl Lewis have ever won three consecutive 100-metre world titles.

"To be the first to win four would mean a lot to me," the 29-year-old Greene said, "because I love doing things people have never done before."

Greene called his first world title, in Athens in 9.86 seconds, his most special because it was his first. His most difficult of the three was the last, in Edmonton in 2001, when Greene ran a stunning 9.82 seconds despite being injured.

"I was amazed that I was able to finish," said Greene, who injured his left quadriceps 10 metres from the finish.

He pronounced himself fit for these championships although tendinitis caused him to drop out of the final of the US championships 200 metres in June.

"I don't have tendinitis," Greene said when asked about his up-and-down season. "I have had some problems in the past, but who cares about those problems. The bottom line is, you've got to be ready to run. You can't make excuses."

Greene showed he is still one of the world's elite sprinters when he clocked 9.94 seconds in June. Only Australia's Patrick Johnson has run faster this year, clocking 9.93 seconds

In total, only seven sprinters have run under 10 seconds, a number that doesn't surprise Greene.

"I think a lot of people are holding back because of the new (one) false-start rule," Greene said. "Nobody wants to get thrown out of a race."

There could be other reasons, too, Greene said, adding that there would be no holding back by him in the world championships.

"I am anxious to get started," he said. "Everything is working out for me, and I am just ready for this challenge."

If he wins, will he be back for a try at a fifth title in Helsinki in 2005?

"I would like to run more worlds," but who knows what is going to happen," the noncommittal Greene responded.

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