Olympics: Spain picks Madrid as 2012 Games candidate

London will face competition from Madrid if Britain decides to bid for the right to stage the 2012 Olympics. Spain's Olympic Committee on Tuesday chose Madrid as the country's candidate to host the 2012 summer games.

Madrid's bid was voted by 157 delegates against 103 for Seville after a near four–hour meeting in the Spanish capital.

Madrid will now have to compete with New York and Moscow which have already entered bids. London, Paris and Rio de Janeiro are other possible contenders while Germany also plans to submit a bid.

The deadline for submission is July 15. The winner will be chosen by the IOC in 2005.

Madrid, which bid for the 1972 games, was Spain's clear favorite on account of the city's superior infrastructure in terms of sports facilities, transport and hotels. It also has experience with organizing big events, having staged several world championships in recent years including last year's Tennis Masters, the athletics World Cup and the Karate World Championships.

"This is a moment of great satisfaction for me, " said Madrid Mayor Jose Maria Alvarez del Manzano who finishes his term this year but has been one of the driving forces behind the project.

"This is an old dream of mine and of everyone who has backed this aimed at pushing our city ahead...We want to compete with other great cities on equal terms and I'm convinced we can do it."

Seville, which put in bids for the 2004 and 2008 games, had shown its organizational capacity when it successfully staged the world rowing championships last year and the 1999 world athletics championships.

Spain's second city, Barcelona presented one of the most successful Olympic Games in 1992.