The small team for the scheduled visit is being led by Denis Oswald, the chairman of the IOC co-ordination commission monitoring the preparations, and Gilbert Felli, the IOC's executive director. 

 

They will meet with key figures in London's preparations, including Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell, London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe and John Armitt, the chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA).

 

High on the agenda will be the possible plan to move three of the sports to new venues.

 

The canoe-slalom venue, planned for a site in Hertfordshire is likely to move seven miles south, after the original location was found to be contaminated.

 

Fencing is expected to move to the ExCel Centre after plans to build a temporary venue to host it were dropped.

 

The search, meanwhile, is still on for a suitable venue for the mountain bike event because the International Cycling Federation have deemed that the original course was not challenging enough for an Olympic competition.

 

Officials will also give some details to the inspectors about the proposed hand-over of the Olympic flag between Beijing and London later this year.

 

But suggestions that the IOC are concerned about recent negative publicity surrounding convicted drugs cheats Linford Christie and Dwain Chambers and how it impacted on 2012 preparations is not true, insidethegames have been told and the matter is unlikely to be discussed during the visit.

 

The full IOC co-ordination commission is due to visit London in May.