London 2012 must tighten its belt - minister

LONDON — The 2012 London Olympics will not escape the austerity measures imposed by the new coalition government, the minister responsible for the Games told AFP in an interview.When his Conservative Party was in opposition, Hugh Robertson attacked the way the Games budget almost quadrupled from an initial 2.4 billion pounds quoted in 2005 when London won the right to host the Olympics.And the massive project's current 9.3-billion-pound budget has attracted envious looks from Robertson's party since it formed a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats following the May elections.Prime Minister David Cameron's administration has launched a drastic cost-cutting programme as it attempts to cut the record 154.7-billion-pound deficit it inherited from the previous Labour government.Robertson, the Sport and Olympics Minister, told AFP that while the rest of Britain was being asked to tighten their belts, the Games could not expect to escape without making any cuts."The Olympics is happening against the backdrop of the largest peacetime budget deficit this country ever had so you can argue that the Olympics has to play its part in paying off the national debt," said the 47-year-old former soldier.The new government wasted no time in making small cuts to the Olympic pot. It was barely in power when it cut 27 million pounds from the annual budget -- although that is a drop in the ocean in such an extensive project.But in line with the current economic climate, savings were already being made before the election.The Olympic Delivery Authority, the body charged with building the Olympic venues, revealed it had saved 100 million pounds in the second quarter of the year, part of an overall total of 700 million pounds of savings.Robertson warns that the purse strings could be tightened even further in the government's comprehensive spending review to be published on October 20, although he refuses to give any details of where cuts could come."I don't know where it's going to land," he said."It's absolutely a dec

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