The International Olympic Committee has rejected Iran's complaint that the logo for the 2012 Olympics resembles the word Zion and is racist.

"The London 2012 logo represents the figure 2012, nothing else," the IOC said in a statement on Tuesday.

The London logo, launched in 2007, shows the numbers 2012 in four jagged figures. Zion is a term that refers to the city of Jerusalem and Iran does not recognise Israel.

Iran made the complaint in a letter to IOC president Jacques Rogge.

"Certainly other countries, including Islamic nations, will react to this racist logo and this would jeopardise the goals of the Olympic games in the world," the secretary general of Iran's national Olympic committee Bahram Afsharzadeh told the official Irna news agency.

He warned the IOC that "negligence of the issue from your side might affect the presence of some countries, especially Iran". – Reuters