Becks brings flame back

David Beckham will help bring the Olympic Flame to Britain from Greece as it starts a 70-day Torch Relay across the country before arriving in London for the 2012 Olympic Games.

Former England captain Beckham will head to Athens in his role as a London 2012 ambassador as part of the official delegation led by Princess Anne and LOCOG chairman Seb Coe.

After travelling around Greece following the lighting ceremony at Olympia, the flame will head to the Parthenon in Athens before the formal handover on Friday.

London Mayor Boris Johnson and Olympics minister Hugh Robertson will also be present, along with five young Britons invited by LOCOG for their commitment to sport and promoting Olympic values.

"We wanted to involve young people from across the UK in bringing home the Olympic Flame," said Coe in a statement.

"Their stories of personal achievement and contribution to sport echo the 8,000 inspiring torchbearer stories that will be shared from this weekend and over the next 10 weeks in the build up to the start of the Games."

Engineers spent nine days and used 250 litres of paint to complete

The flame will be flown to Culdrose naval base in Cornwall in a specially decorated British Airways A319 aircraft named 'The Firefly' - which was the winning name out of 1,000 entries into a competition run in schools to name the aircraft.

Olympic champion sailor Ben Ainslie will be in Land's End on Saturday as the Olympic Torch Relay officially gets underway.

The 70-day Olympic Torch Relay will use 8,000 torchbearers and travel around 12,800km around the United Kingdom and Ireland.

"Bringing the Olympic flame back from its ancient home in Greece is a hugely symbolic moment which will ignite people's hopes and aspirations for what will be a summer like no other," said Johnson.

Finally getting to Stratford in East London on July 27th, when it will enter the Olympic Stadium at the opening ceremony for London 2012.

Just hours after a White House reception with President Obama, LA Galaxy star Beckham will make the trip over to Greece for the ceremony.

The 37-year-old has stated his desire to play for a united Great Britain team at the Olympics and could be in Stuart Pearce's squad for the football tournament at the Games.