The flag was raised at Strathclyde Park to celebrate the moment that London became the official host city for the 2012 Olympic Games.

Sports stars and future Olympic hopefuls, fresh from the International Children's Games in San Francisco, helped Provost Tom Curley perform the ceremony, watched by a number of guests including Billy Fisher who won an Olympic bronze boxing medal at the 1960 Games in Rome.

Olympian Yvonne Murray accepted the flag on behalf of all the athletes who will be competing in the 2012 Games.

Provost Curley said: "Our role in the 2012 Olympics is an important one as we'll be providing pre-Games training facilities to athletes from all over the world.

"It's thanks to the excellence of council facilities like Strathclyde Country Park; and to the investment made by North Lanarkshire Leisure in centres like Broadwood Stadium and Wishaw Sports Centre, that North Lanarkshire is able to offer four world-class venues as training camps for international athletes in 2012."

North Lanarkshire's event was one of hundreds which saw more than 500 London Olympic flags delivered to locations including HM Armed Forces bases and British embassies around the world, as well as to British council offices and Foreign and Commonwealth offices.