Coe to state London's case in TV debate

Sebastian Coe is to put forward London's case for holding the 2012 Olympic Games in a televised debate with his opponents.

In the programme to be screened by BBC World, Coe will have up to three minutes to state his case for Britain to host the event. Also advocating their own cities should be Dan Doctoroff for New York and Philippe Baudillon for Paris as well as representatives for Moscow and Madrid. All speeches will be in English, though the speakers are apparently unfazed by the prospect, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Coe said: "All the bidding cities have agreed to take part and I'm looking forward to it. It's a great opportunity for all the cities to put their case."

The programme, to be filmed on January 27 in Turin, has taken the BBC three months to organise. In compliance with the International Olympic Committee's ethics commission the representatives will not be allowed to criticise the other bids but must work by extolling their own virtues. The representatives will present their speech before being quizzed by a journalist.

The debate will be filmed in Turin as the representatives will already be in Italy for the European figure-skating championships.

Paris is the favourite to win in its bid for hosting the event. The result will be decided in Singapore on July 6.