Britain is going to set up an intelligence unit to identify illegal betting practices and tackle attempts to fix events in the London Olympics this summer, The Sunday Times reported on Sunday.

The specialist unit will be headed by the Metropolitan Police and work with the Serious Organised Crime Agency and Interpol to track suspicious gambling activity abroad, according to the newspaper.

A spokesman from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport said the unit "will be able to obtain and draw on information and intelligence from various sources including the Betting Commission, national Olympic commissions and Interpol on any suspicious betting patterns or intelligence surrounding match-fixing."

Meanwhile, athletes were reported to have been approached by bookmakers to influence the outcome of their competitions. British Olympics minister Hugh Robertson was quoted as saying that event fixing poses a bigger threat to the London Games' reputation than doping.

"You cannot underestimate the threat this poses because the moment that spectators start to feel that what they are seeing is not a true contest, that is when spectators stop turning up and the whole thing turns to pieces," Robertson said.