London pulled off a stunning come-from-behind victory to beat Paris and win the 2012 Olympics here on Wednesday.

The final vote by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) members was 54-50 for London.

It was an amazing victory for bid leader and two-time Olympic champion Sebastian Coe who was brought in last year to replace American Babara Cassani who quit as leader of the London 2012 team.

London's bid was trailing badly behind the French and looked doomed.

But Coe, along with businessman Keith Mills and London mayor Ken Livingstone, turned everything around and on Wednesday the tens of thousands of miles flying the world to seal the bid paid off in spectacular style.

"This is amazing because when we started out we thought this was a mountain to climb, that we would never actually win. Now we are going to give the world the best Games they have ever seen," said Livingstone.

It was also a massive personal victory for British Prime Minister Tony Blair who flew into Singapore three days before the IOC members voted to hold a series of private one-on-one meetings with the members to sell the bid.

Nearly 20 members were escorted up to a special suite in the

Swiss Hotel over Monday and Tuesday to meet the prime minister.

"It is a momentous day for London," said Blair, who heard the news in the heavily fortified Scottish golf resort of Gleneagles where he was to host a three-day Group of Eight leaders' summit.

Blair said he could not bear to watch the final bids.

"It is fantastic. I am thrilled."

Moscow, New York and Madrid were all eliminated in three rounds of voting by the nearly 100 IOC members present, leaving London and Paris as the two survivors and one of them sure of victory.

When IOC president Jacques Rogge opened the envelope baring the winner's name and read out London the London bid team jumped to their feet.

Coe was embraced by everyone around him.

Across the aisle the French team sat in stunned disbelief.

It was the third time in 20 years that the French capital had been rejected by the IOC.

And it was a bitter blow for French President Jacques Chirac, who has been personally involved in all three Paris bids - once as mayor of Paris and twice as president.

The 72-year-old Chirac had flown into Singapore on Tuesday afternoon so he could address the IOC session during Paris' final presentation.

The French team were hoping that the presence of Chirac would clinch victory for a bid that has been the front-runner since the campaign began.

But in the end the IOC decided that London, who last held the Games in 1948, should have 2012.