Olympics-IOC calls for quick decision on 2012 venues

LONDON, Dec 11 (Reuters) - The International Olympic Committee (IOC) expects all of the venues for London 2012 to be decided by next March.

Uncertainty still surrounds the venues for at least two sports as London organisers re-think plans to use costly temporary structures that will leave no lasting legacy.

Fencing and volleyball have already been switched while a decision is yet to be made on badminton and shooting, both of which were to be staged at temporary venues.

"We have asked that, at least in March, all of that will be closed so that we know where all the venues are," Gilbert Felli, the IOC's Olympic Games director, said in the Daily Telegraph.

Felli was speaking after an IOC board meeting in Lausanne to review London's preparations for the Games.

Earlier this year leading accountants KPMG were commissioned by the Government to provide a report into whether significant cost savings could be made by finding alternatives to using four temporary venues.

KPMG's initial findings said basketball, to be held in a 12,000-seat temporary venue in the Olympic Park, and equestrian events, to be staged in nearby Greenwich Park, should not be changed.

However, the 6,000-seat temporary arena to be used for badminton and rhythmic gymnastics is still under review with Wembley Arena a possible venue for badminton.

The plan to stage shooting at the historic Woolwich Barracks has been criticised by the sport's own governing body who say its will leave no lasting legacy.

The harsh economic climate has hit the 2012 Games hard with the Government forced to release 95 million pounds ($142.3 million) of contingency funding so that construction work on the Olympic village can continue.

Earlier this week, Olympic Minister Tessa Jowell did not rule out the Government having to make good a 250 million-pound shortfall in the village project as Australian developer Lend Lease struggles to raise private investment. (Reporting by Martyn Herman; editing by Rex Gowar)