The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has confirmed that the nine cities in the bidding race to host the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games have all returned their questionnaires on time, thereby officially confirming their interest in hosting the Games.

The nine cities are Paris, Leipzig, New York, Moscow, Istanbul, Havana, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and London.

The IOC will be meeting on the 18 May following examination of the questionnaires to decide upon a shorlist of bidders. The committee is due to make its final decision on the host city in July 2005.

Of the nine cities, it is widely believed that those with the best chance of making it through to the final shortlist as ‘candidate cities’ will be Paris, Madrid, Moscow, New York, London and Rio de Janeiro.

London’s bid incorporates existing facilities such as Wembley, Wimbledon and Lord's as well as a brand new, east London Olympic Park, which would include an 80,000 seat stadium, an aquatic centre and a velodrome.

Chair of London’s bid, Barbara Cassani, said many of the 28 sports will take place within 15 minutes of the athletes village at Olympic Park while tourist landmarks like Hyde Park, Regent’s Park and Horse Guards Parade would be utilised for some of the events.

The Parisien bid is focused on two main areas to the north and the west sides of the city and would propose to include volleyball at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. It has already hosted both the 1998 World Cup and the 2003 World Athletics Championships.

Madrid has centred its bid on the ‘green Games’ idea. Although Spain last staged the Games 12 years ago in Barcelona, the idea of a Games ‘without cars’, using public transport to maximum effect, is seen as an attractive one.

Were Moscow’s bid to be successful, it could be the first Games in Russia since 1980. An update of its facilities would be needed but the bid has received the full support of President Vladimir Putin.

Fancy watching Olympic boxing at Madison Square Garden? Or cheering on the triathletes in Central Park? New York’s bid is resting on these sites being bid winners. It also intends to regenerate the West Side with an 86,000 capacity stadium, to be built on the banks of the Hudson River.

The Rio de Janeiro bid includes staging events on the spectacular Copacabana beach and Guanbara Bay – but the IOC may need a lot of convincing that crime in the city would be kept under control.

The other cities in the group of nine are predicted not to fare quite as well. Leipzig has suffered from allegations of nepotism and rumours of links between its bid organisation and the former secret police.

Cuba’s standalone political stance means Havana will remain an outsider in the bid race while, although this will be Istanbul’s seventh successive bid attempt and many of its facilities have already been built, accommodation and security worries have already been raised.