The poll has led to more calls from Members of Parliament to abandon the bid, which has already cost the country NOK200 million (£20 million/$34 million/€25 million).

"Now it's completely clear that, from the authorities' side, they should consider putting the arrangement on ice," Harald Tom Nesvik of the Progress Party told NRK.

The Progress Party are the junior partners in the coalition Government and have already voted not to back the financial guarantees needed for the bid to go ahead.

Norway's King Harald was an enthusiastic supporter at Sochi 2014 but his country is less keen on hosting the Winter Olympics and Paralympics ©Getty Images

Other politicians have also called for the bid to be scrapped. 

"This [poll result] is a strong reaction against the International Olympic Committee and the waste of money that arranging a huge Olympics entails," said Audun Lysbakken, leader of the Socialist Left Party.

"It's impossible to support an Olympics unless the public mood turns around."

Jonas Gahr Støre of the Labour Party told NRK that all MPs must "pay attention" to the poll results.

His party colleague Trond Giske, a former Government Minister of Culture and Sports, claimed that Oslo 2022 had failed to drum up any support for the bid and the idea should be dropped. 

"One of the arguments for arranging an Olympics is that it's supposed to be a folkefest [a big people's party]," Giske told NRK.

"But if the people themselves don't want an Olympics, that's of course an argument against it."

Part of Bach's mission during his trip to Norway - which will also include a visit to Lillehammer to inspect preparations for the 2016 Winter Youth Olympics - will be to convince the nation of the benefits of hosting the Games. 

"Now there is considerable scepticism, and I think much of the information that has come out, especially around the IOC, has made the scepticism greater," Christian Democratic Party leader Knut Arild Hareide said.

Besides meeting the King at Ullevaal Stadion, a possible venue for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies if Oslo is awarded the Games, Bach also plans to hold talks with several humanitarian and environmental organisations and a group of trade unions. 

Bach will be accompanied by a delegation that will also include Norway's IOC members Gerhard Heiberg, organiser of the hugely successful 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, and Ser Miang Ng,Singapore's non-resident Ambassador to Norway since 2001 and head of the IOC's Finance Commission.

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