LONDON -- Competitors from around the world will be able to base themselves at one of 600 training camp venues in the United Kingdom ahead of the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Organizers said here Monday the record list of training facilities was proof of their commitment to staging an 'athletes' Games and would also ensure that parts of the country well beyond London would have a chance to participate in the Olympics.

Foreign teams will be provided with a list of sites at the Beijing Olympics in August.

"We said that we wanted the London Games to be for athletes, and the facilities listed in this Guide will really help overseas athletes prepare well," said London 2012 chairman Lord Sebastian Coe.

"It also provides a great opportunity for towns throughout the UK to get involved in our plans," Coe, a double Olympic 1500m gold medallist added.

"The process we have been through shows a great spread of high-quality facilities throughout the UK that can be used by elite level athletes."

Some 35 percent of the venues are in London and the south-east with the north-west of England the biggest provider of Olympic training facilities outside London with more than 60 venues or 11 percent of the total.

Officials have promised visiting Olympic teams a 'credit' of up to 25,000 pounds to encourage teams to base themselves in the UK, with the money coming from the London organizing committee's budget.

Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, welcoming the news that 96 sports centers and sites across the capital had been selected as pre-Olympic training venues, said: "This shows what an excellent range of sporting facilities is currently available to Londoners and which might in 2012 be used by some of the world's greatest athletes."