(MAY 21) The President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Jacques Rogge has given the most positive indication yet that women's boxing will be included in the 2012 Olympics in London.

Rogge, a Belgium national, was in Dublin, Ireland yesterday for the unveiling of a bust of former IOC President Lord Killanian.

He told today's Irish Times: “There is a proposal of the International Boxing Federation on the table, but not yet finalised."

Rogge, a physician by profession, addmited that medical issues had halted the IOC's decision to introduce the female version of the noble art at the 2008 Games in Beijing.

“They made their first application in 2005. We examined the situation, but at that time they did not have enough universality, and they did not have enough countries.

"And also, from a medical point of view, there was a big discrepancy, in the same weight category, between the skills and the level of the women. You would have very sophisticated boxers against very junior boxers, in the same weight category, which in boxing is dangerous.

“So we said they’d have to wait a few years. Now we are four years later. We’ve studied it again with the medical commission of the IOC, and they have said no problem, from a medical point of view.

"And we are satisfied that there is a far better universality. So conditions are totally different. The timing is right, because the sport has evolved a lot, both in universality, and also the homogeneity within each weight bracket.”

Ultimately, the decisions rests with the IOC executive board, rather than the full IOC Congress: “That’s because it’s a discipline within a sport, not a new sport. The full Congress votes on new sports, but the executive votes on new disciplines within a sport. So once the proposal is finalised, it will be decided by the executive board in December.”