TESSA JOWELL, the Olympics minister, wants the 2012 Games to meet equality targets by allowing women to compete in heavyweight wrestling and men in synchronised swimming.

She has written to UK sports chiefs asking them to help end “gender discrepancies” in the Olympic and Paralympic rules, which allow men to compete in 40 more events than women.

“It’s wrong that women can’t compete in as many events as men,” said Jowell.

“Women’s sport has come on in leaps and bounds so it’s high time there was equal opportunity at the Olympics.”

In a letter to Baroness Campbell, who chairs UK Sport, Jowell and Gerry Sutcliffe, the sports minister, said the government had an “obligation to GB athletes to pursue equality”.

UK Sport will work with sports governing bodies to put pressure on the International Olympics Committee (IOC) to end the discrimination by 2012.

Changes to Olympic sports are in the sole gift of the IOC and decisions about which sports to include are usually taken seven years in advance. The line-up can be changed, however, if there is an agreement between sport federations and Olympic chiefs.

Women are barred from competing in boxing and there are big gender differences in the number of wrestling, shooting, rowing, canoeing and track cycling events.

Men are excluded from synchronised swimming and rhythmic gymnastics.

UK Sport has welcomed Jowell’s move, but Yvonne Ball of the British Wrestling Association said it was highly unlikely women would want to compete in heavyweight wrestling.

“I can’t see there will be enough over-21s in the frame to compete at Olympic level,” she added.