LONDON, June 12: The 2012 London Olympics will produce the greatest long-term regeneration benefits of any host city since the 1992 Barcelona Games, Mayor Ken Livingstone said on Tuesday at the start of a key International Olympic Committee (IOC) inspection visit.

The organisers focused on the redevelopment legacy of the Olympic Park in east London in their opening meetings with the IOC’s coordination commission.

After the games, 9,000 houses will be built in or around the park as part of a 20-year programme to bring 40,000 new homes to the East End.

“London will be the most successful Olympic Games since Barcelona in 1992 in terms of its regeneration legacy,” Livingstone said. “As the next three Olympic Games follow London, we will still be getting the legacy benefits in terms of housing and employment.”

The Olympic Park will provide five major sports venues – the main stadium, which will be reduced in seating capacity from 90,000 to 25,000 after the games; an aquatics centre, velodrome and an indoor multi-sport centre. The site will be the one of the largest urban parks in Europe in 150 years.

It’s the first visit by the IOC’s full 16-member commission since April 2006, and the second overall since London was awarded the games in 2005.

“Everything is being done on time,” Culture Secretary and Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell said. “We are actually, believe it or not, doing pretty well and we have got a good story to tell the IOC inspectors this week.”

The meetings come in the wake of last week’s unveiling by London organisers of a jigsaw-style logo featuring four block-style jagged pieces combining to form the numbers 2012 in a variety of pink, blue, green and orange colours.

The logo has drawn sharp public criticism, with 30,000 people signing an online petition calling for the 40,000-pound ($78,930; euro59,156) design to be scrapped. Organizers were forced to withdraw part of a promotional video using the logo after claims it had caused some viewers to suffer epileptic seizures.—AP