THE London bid team will today learn whether it is still a strong contender to host the 2012 Olympic Games when a key report is published by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The IOC evaluation commission’s document will not rank the five candidate cities but it will judge them on their concepts and abilities to deliver the 16-day event.

The evaluation report is intended simply to be a guide for members of the IOC, but any negative comments from the commission, led by Nawal El Moutawakel, of Morocco, could ruin a bidding city’s chances of success before the vote by eligible IOC members in Singapore on July 6.

The report will deal with the main technical issues such as financing, legacy, sporting infrastructure, accommodation, transport and security as well as political and public backing for each bid. The report is due to be published on the IOC’s website at lunchtime and will be followed by a press conference with Lord Coe, the bid leader, Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary, and Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London.

London is expected to receive positive feedback in the wake of a successful visit by the evaluation team in February. After a shaky start and a change of bid leader, London is now seen to be neck and neck with Paris, which is making its third Olympic bid since 1992.

At the interim report stage last May London was marked down by the IOC for transport and public support for the bid. The result of the poor assessment was that Barbara Cassani, an American former airline executive, stepped down as bid leader for Lord Coe, the double Olympic champion and a familiar face among international sporting administrators.

Since then Coe has travelled the world with the London message and has turned the bid into a competitive one. In the past five months he has spent no more than three consecutive days at home. “I think we are well placed,” he said. “I think it will go to the wire.”

While the London and Paris bids are in good shape, New York, once a contender, is falling away because of a wrangle over its proposed Olympic stadium. Michael Bloomberg, the city’s mayor, was forced to postpone a vote by public authorities for approval of the project until today. Madrid, meanwhile, is struggling to make an impact, despite the backing of Juan Antonio Samaranch, the former IOC president, and Moscow remains the rank outsider.

The candidate cities’ campaigns have been conducted under strict IOC ethics rules enacted after the scandal over cash, scholarships and other inducements given to IOC members during Salt Lake City’s winning bid for the 2002 Winter Games. Ten IOC delegates resigned or were expelled. IOC members have been banned from visiting bid cities, while lobbying and promotion by the bidders was tightly controlled.