MORE than 600 sporting facilities across the UK – including 36 in Kent - could host visiting Olympic teams ahead of the 2012 London games.

London 2012 organisers today released the full list of “high-quality, elite sporting facilities” they have deemed appropriate as pre-training camps for international athletes’ use in the run up to the games.

Lord Sebastian Coe, chairman of the London Organising Committee, commented: ``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.

"It also provides a great opportunity for towns throughout the UK to get involved in our plans. 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."

The list will be published in a guide to be distributed to all national Olympic and Paralympic committees at the Beijing Games this summer, and the organisations will use them to decide where they base themselves or to send individual athletes to prepare for 2012 games.

Hugh Robertson, MP for Faversham and Mid Kent and shadow Sports and Olympics minister, was launching the 2012 South East Pre-Games Training Camps guide at Stoke Mandeville in Buckinghamshire today with Lord Coe.

Mr Robertson said: "I hope that many of these facilities will go on to host visiting teams before the London Games and that it will be the start of long associations between the towns and countries concerned.

"It is also an excellent way to encourage more people to take up sport."

The Howard Table Tennis Centre in the Howard School, Rainham, is among the 31 venues to have been included.

Manager Steve Waud said: "The centre has gone from strength to strength since it opened in 2005, and to potentially have an Olympic team come here to train would be fantastic for us."