Singapore - London won the right to host the 2012 Olympics in a vote by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Wednesday pipping arch-rivals Paris in a dramatic finale.

The announcement was made by IOC chief Jacques Rogge.

The British capital will become the first city to stage the Olympics for a third time after holding them in 1908 and 1948.

Paris has now failed with three successive bids for the Games of 1992, 2008 and 2012.

Moscow was the first to fall in the opening round of voting by around 100 IOC members, followed by New York and Madrid in the second and third rounds.

That left the two favourites, Paris and London, to battle it out for the supreme spoils in sports and London won the day.

Beijing hosts the next Games in 2008.

Nine cities, making multi-million rand bids, started the race for the 2012 Games 19 months ago.

It was the biggest field of Olympic candidates after the 1997 vote for the 2004 Games when 10 cities went into the ring against eventual winners Athens.

Rio de Janeiro, Leipzig, Havana and Istanbul were the first to be eliminated in 2004.

Istanbul had been making its fourth consecutive bid while Rio had been hoping to become the first South American city to stage the Games.

Paris, which hosted the Games in 1900 and 1924, had been the front-runner from the start. The IOC has never rejected three consecutive bids from a considered front-runner.

Athens, humiliated by Atlanta when it tried to win the right to stage the 1996 centenary Games, finally won approval in 1997 for the 2004 Games when it beat off a strong bid from Rome.

London, well behind in the IOC's early reports, and embarrassed by having to withdraw an enticement to the 10 500 athletes and team officials of free flights to London, free phone calls and free British train travel, made up ground quickly in the last few months.

New York's bid appeared doomed when they failed to win approval for a $2-billion Olympic stadium on Manhattan's West Side.

But within days bid leader Dan Doctoroff announced a deal had been struck with the New York Mets baseball team to have the stadium built in Queens.

But the 2012 Games were always thought to have a stronger chance of being awarded to Europe than North America as the 2010 Winter Olympics will be staged in Vancouver, Canada.

London was finally persuaded to mount a challenge after Birmingham (twice) and Manchester had failed in bids for previous Games.

It was the city's first bid. In 1908 and 1948 London stepped in to hold the Games at the request of the International Olympic Committee.