Olympics-Coe says London's approach could help African bid

LONDON, Nov 9 (Reuters) London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe believes an African country could host the Olympic Games if it followed London's model.

Speaking at a meeting of African Olympic leaders and national Olympic committees in Malawi today, Coe said there was increasing support for an African Games.

He said London's use of existing facilities and temporary venues would serve as an example of how to avoid the prohibitive costs of staging a Games.

''This is an approach that will help to herald a new era in venue design and use, one that will help to render the construction of large-scale, costly permanent and underused stadia a thing of the past and make it possible to stage major events in a greater number of potential host cities and countries,'' Coe said in a statement.

Coe also repeated London's pledge of grants of up to 26,000 pounds (,580) for national Olympic and Paralympic committees to help with the costs of sending their athletes to training camps in Britain before the 2012 Games.

''We know that many athletes will not have experienced life in the UK before and the training camps initiative will help to give them the chance to acclimatise and to perform at their best,'' he said.

REUTERS SAM PM1906