Torch returns to capital

London will get a chance to prove it can stage one of the most prestigious elements of the Olympic Games when the official torch visits the capital next June on its way to Athens.

It was announced today that the torch relay will visit London for the first time for 56 years on 26 June, providing 2012 bid chiefs with an excellent test of their organisational skills.

By then London should have made it through the first stage of the bidding process and become an official 2012 candidate city. Since Greece is the home of the flame, the relay will visit all previous hosts of the Games. London staged the 1908 and 1948 Olympics.

The torch will make its way past the Tower of London, St Paul's Cathedral, the London Eye and Trafalgar Square and will be the centrepoint of a show in central London in the evening.

Craig Reedie, the British Olympic Association chairman, said: "The return of the Olympic torch to London for the first time since 1948 presents British sport and London with a major opportunity.

"I am delighted that we are working so closely with the Greater London Authority and Visit London to create a programme that will ensure the best possible coverage of the planned events."

The announcement was set to be marked today by a ceremony in Trafalgar Square, where the flag of the Athens Games will be raised by Reedie, mayor Ken Livingstone and recordbreaking Olympian Sir Steve Redgrave.