The BOA sent a letter to the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) in Lausanne late last night saying that its legal action against London 2012 is now temporarily on hold.

A BOA spokesman described it as a "good faith gesture to demonstrate our desire to negotiate without the burden of the legal process behind us".

But, in a move that will do little to placate London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe and chief executive Paul Deighton - nor International Olympic Committtee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge - the BOA chief executive Andy Hunt has sent a letter to the sports that make up Britain's National Olympic Committee in which he clearly believes that they have done nothing wrong.

"This is a positive step forward and I am pleased we have mantained the higher ground in spite of the campaign against us," he wrote in the letter seen by insidethegames.

The BOA chairman Colin Moynihan has come under increasing pressure in recent days to drop his claim that staging the Paralympics should not be taken into account when calculating the 20 per cent surplus that they are due from the staging of London 2012.

The IOC have already ruled against the BOA and the Sports and Olympic Minister Hugh Robertson has called the case "an embarrassment."

It is not certain that Coe will be involved in the negotations when they reopen, insidethegames understands, but he is clearly hopeful of a positive resolution.

"Clearly it is sensible not to have a dispute running on," he said during SportAccord here.

"In fairness of course we don't see this as a dispute any longer because the International Olympic Committee have made their judgement, the Government has made its judgement, the Mayor's office has made it's judgement and our position at LOCOG is really clear - that we are running hard to maintain a balanced budget but beyond that I'm not going to speculate.

"I will wait to see what the meeting holds at the end of the week."

The IOC are also relieved that the threat of the case going to CAS has been lifted - at least for now.

"As Winston Churchill said, 'Jaw jaw is better than war war'," said IOC spokesman Mark Adams.

"This is a positive sign."

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