Wimbledon pulled out all the stops for the visit

There had been much speculation about whether transport issues would embarrass London's bid team during the International Olympic Committee team's visit.

So there was relief all round when the train used to give the inspectors a taste of the city's transport plans for 2012 safely negotiated four stops along the Jubilee Line on Thursday.

It was not exactly a typical tube experience, as the VIPs were given an entire train to themselves for the nine-minute trip between Stratford and North Greenwich.

There was a brass band to welcome them, and the special treatment continued at Wimbledon when the visitors were treated to a guard of honour by a group of ball boys and girls.

Olympic officials will stay in five-star hotels on Park Lane if London wins hosting rights for 2012, reports The Times.

London 2012 has block-booked 2,000 rooms in the Dorchester, the Four Seasons and four other exclusive hotels for the IOC bigwigs.

The decision to put them up more than eight miles from the planned Olympic village was taken because there are not enough hotels of satisfactory calibre in the East End.

London's bid team calculate that it will take 27 minutes to transport them by car from their hotels to the Olympic Park, using special traffic lanes.

Blair tells mayor to apologise

London bid chairman Lord Coe has urged London mayor Ken Livingstone to apologise for his remarks to a Jewish journalist, according to the Independent.

Publicly, the London bid team insist the IOC inspection team is yet to bring up the controversy, which is dominating the news during their visit.

However, a bid source told the Independent that the team are "spitting blood" over the row and Livingstone's refusal to apologise.

Former Olympic 100m champion Maurice Greene has all but dismissed New York's chances of hosting the Games.

"New York is far down the list," said the American.

"America has already held the Games more times than anyone else. London could put on a great Olympics. The fans would enjoy it and the organisation would be good."

The 'Kansas Canonball' is in Britain to compete in Friday's Norwich Union Grand Prix in Birmingham.

Bookmakers are strangely divided over London's chances of winning the Games.

Ladbrokes slashed the odds on the capital being successful from 4-1 to 3-1 as the campaign was boosted by a variety of positive comments.

But William Hill believe the controversy over London mayor Ken Livingstone's remarks to a Jewish journalist have damaged the bid, and make the city 7-2 behind hot 2-9 favourites Paris.

British Olympic gold medal-winning sprinter Darren Campbell is backing the bid, knowing the personal heartache of missing out.

Campbell was just 17 when he helped promote Manchester's attempt to win the 1996 Games, only to see his hometown lose out.

"It was like someone had died. There were even people crying," he told The Sun.

London bid leader Lord Coe left nothing to chance in his preparations for the International Olympic Committee evaluation team's visit.

Lord Coe hired a group of Olympic sports experts to test his team on every aspect of the bid, to ensure they would be ready to handle an IOC grilling.

He even made them rehearse greeting delegates off the plane, says the Guardian.

As they say, first impressions count - and Coe was determined there should be no weak, sweaty handshakes.

Wimbledon pulled out all the stops for the visit

Cynical Londoners will no doubt smirk a wry smile at the image of 13 IOC delegates rattling across the capital on London Underground as part of their inspection of the city's transport system.

Will a signal failure, 12-minute delay, overcrowding, suspended line, or inability to 'Mind the Gap' be the undoing of Lord Coe's meticulously planned bid?

Well, John Glester - deputy chairman of Manchester's unsuccessful bid for the 2000 Olympics - has some reassuring words.

"Things do go wrong (during IOC inspections)," Glester told BBC Radio Five Live.

"When they were looking at Atlanta in the 1990s they were looking at the transport system which was a concern and they had difficulties when they were travelling on that.

"But they still awarded the Games to Atlanta. So it's a balance of things - you can't expect everything to go right over a four-day visit."

The Prime Minister has been told there must not be a sausage roll or vol-au-vent in sight when the International Olympic Committee's evaluation commission visits Downing Street.

The IOC has warned Number 10 that London can only hold one 'reception' during the inspection, reports the Guardian.

As the Queen has already lined up a dinner at Buckingham Palace, the inspectors will have to go hungry at their two-hour meeting with Tony and Cherie Blair, Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell and London Mayor Ken Livingstone on Friday.

"We can't give them anything, not even a bowl of crisps," a government source told the newspaper.

What will the IOC delegates make of the tube?

IOC members are used to being flattered by rival bidders as they try to drum up support ahead of Olympic votes.

But there must have been a few raised eyebrows when they opened their mail to find a Valentine's Day card from Moscow's Olympic bid team.

"Be My Valentine... From Russia with Love," is the message.

"Muscovites and Russians alike are passionate about Moscow hosting the 2012 Olympics," said bid PR director Julia Bordovskikh, who is a Russian TV star.

"This is a light-hearted way of communicating this tremendous support and overall love of sport to IOC members."

Cherie Blair has been rapped over the knuckles by the IOC after cracking a joke about London's main rivals Paris, according to the Mail on Sunday.

"We are going to win the bid - what does Paris know about culture?", the Prime Minister's wife said during her recent book-promotion tour in Australia.

Strict bidding rules ban bid cities from criticising their rivals, even in jest.

Mrs Blair apparently made another gaffe down under by mistaking New Zealand for Australia.