A campaign to get the event moved to Margam, near Port Talbot, in South Wales, because of continuing problems over finding a suitable venue in Essex, will fail, Coe warned during a visit to Cardiff.

 

He said: “As is the case with all of our venues, we have to sign all of those venues off with the International Federation.

 

“At the moment we hope that nothing alters.

 

“I’ve discussed this with (Sports Minister) Rhodri Glyn Thomas and we want it to work at the site are looking at now (in Essex).”

 

That site, as insidethegames revealead last week, is at Hadleigh Castle Country Park near Southend and it is expected to be officially confirmed by London 2012 and the International Cycling Federation (UCI) in the next few weeks.

 

But Coe, who met First Minister Rhodri Morgan during his visit, did re-assure the Welsh that they will play a major role in the Olympics as the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff is due to host matches during the football tournament.

 

He said: “We’ve got a Games in London because we had to have a city to hold it but this cannot be seen in Wales or Scotland or Northern Ireland, or even in my home city of Sheffield, as just being about London.

 

“This has to be seen as a UK-wide project.

 

“It’s not going to happen if I sit in an office in London and say, ‘Great we’re getting the Olympic Games’.”

 

Coe said he “loved” being in Wales where sport was a “part of people’s DNA”.

 

He said: “I never really feel that I’m having to preach to anything other than the converted because you get sport here."