LONDON yesterday continued to set the agenda in the struggle by the five rival cities hoping to stage the 2012 Olympics when its bid team announced a cluster of high-profile incentives to win over leading officials.

Until 1999, when the IOC had to act after the Salt Lake City “favours for votes” scandal, it was the IOC members who received the benevolence of candidates eager to secure the world’s biggest sports event. Yesterday, at the Sport Accord conference, the London bid organisers stepped up their efforts to show the 39 IOC members present and also the international federations how much they wanted to aid the competitors themselves.

Lord Coe, the bid leader, outflanked his rival cities by announcing that London would spend £10 million on meeting the cost of a flexible return economy airfare for each member of every competing team should London win the right to stage the Games when the IOC votes in Singapore on July 6.

Both Sydney in 2000 and Athens in 2004 paid for competitors to go to the Games. However, these were often on fixed, unchangeable and inconvenient dates causing most countries, such as Britain, to accept a percentage cost from the hosts towards their flights so that they could travel on more suitable dates and with their favoured airlines.

At a meeting in Athens last year of the Association of National Olympic Committees, many of the smaller countries protested at this arrangement. Coe said that London would allow visiting teams to travel from their capital cities to Britain on whichever dates are convenient. Much of the cost would probably be defrayed by using the partner airline of the organising committee.

London is also planning to provide all countries with £30,000 towards the cost of accommodation if they wish to use designated training camps in Britain to prepare for the Games. Other commitments, which were included in the London bid’s “charters” with athletes and their national Olympic committees, include giving all athletes in the Olympic Village a telephone card, which will allow them to make up to £60 worth of free calls, and a “Home Stay” programme enabling the families of competitors to stay with British hosts free.

Jacques Rogge, the IOC president, declined to comment on whether the charters might contravene the organisation’s rules about the behaviour of the bidding cities until he had read the details. However, it is now part of the Olympic contract that the host city pays for visiting teams and the commitments announced yesterday can only benefit the athletes and their families further.

Paris, the favourite to stage the Games, may be obliged to follow London’s lead. However, Philippe Baudillon, the bid leader who recently seems to have been sidelined in presentations by French political figures, said: “It is not our idea to do so. We respect the other cities but we do not manage our bid like that.”

In a development in the long-running problem of doping, Rogge said yesterday that the IOC would now look at testing the first six athletes after each Olympic event and not just the top four. He will also meet Dick Pound, the president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, to decide how to increase the number of out-of-competition tests administered last year from 2,500, a fall from 5,000 tests in 2003.

SELLING POINTS

A ticket exchange to be set up within the Olympic Village. Cost: nothing.