London beat Paris by a slight margin to win the right to host the 2012 Olympic Games after the International Olympic Committee cast their votes on Wednesday.

The race was so tight that it went down to the fourth and last round before London pulled off a 54-50 victory over Paris.

The other three candidate cities, including Moscow, New York and Madrid, were eliminated in the first three rounds successively.

The bid, featuring five world-class cities, had been billed as being the tightest race in the Olympic history.

Paris had been regarded as the favorites throughout the whole bidding process, but London launched a strong challenge to the front-runners before taking the top sporting prize.

It was a bitter blow for Paris who had bid for the Games for the third time in the last 20 years while London succeeded in its first attempt.

London's final pitch to the 117th IOC Session seemed to have tipped the balance in favor of the British capital as the city's bid committee made their case in a very emotional way.

During their presentation on Wednesday London has set themselves apart from the other candidate cities by focusing on the importance of getting more young people involved in the sports.

"I think a lot of members used their hearts instead of their brains to vote," said IOC member Gerhard Heiberg.

"It was very much an emtional thing," he referred to the emotional speech by the London bid committee.

UK Sports chief Sue Campbell said that London's bid concept has made somewhat difference.

"The thing we are most proud of is we were very focused on young people and children, and the future of the Olympic movement," she said.

Following are the voting figures in the four rounds of balloting by International Olympic Committeefor the 2012 Olympic city:

First round:

London 22

Paris 21

Madrid 20

New York 19

Moscow 15 (eliminated)

Second round:

Madrid 32

London 27

Paris 25

New York 16 (eliminated)

Third round:

London 39

Paris 33

Madrid 31 (eliminated)

Fourth round:

London 54

Paris 50 (eliminated)

Source: Xinhua