MINISTER FOR Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said the decision to include Carlingford Lough as an official pre-games training location for the London 2012 Olympics underlines "the potential that exists for the island of Ireland to benefit from London's hosting of the games".
The organising committee for the London Olympics has confirmed the lough, part of which is in Northern Ireland, will be in its guide of 600 official locations for pre-games training across the UK.
The Killowen-Carlingford lough location will be for sailing competitors. Killowen is a small village close to Rostrevor, Co Down, on the northern shores of the lough and is one of 27 locations in the North to be included in the guide.
The guide will be distributed to all countries competing in this year's Beijing Olympic Games.
According to the Olympic Organising Committee, it will contain "high-quality, elite sporting facilities right across the UK which will give teams and individual athletes a great selection of venues from which they can choose to prepare for the London Olympic and Paralympic Games".
The inclusion is the result of Oriel 2012, a cross-Border initiative to persuade teams competing in the 2012 Olympics to chose the region for pre-games training.
Mr Ahern said it was an endorsement of the cross-Border strategy being pursued under the Oriel 2012 umbrella by Louth local authorities, their counterparts in Newry and Mourne and enterprise agencies in each area.
"We have a tremendous asset on Ireland's northeast coast and . . . excellent transport links and proximity to Britain . . . Inclusion in the guide is no guarantee of success and there will still be intense competition, but we are very much in the game and have a platform to sell this region," he added.
Paul McCormack of the Oriel 2012 committee said: "This inclusion in the 2012 training camp guide provides a global window for the promotion of Carlingford Lough as a sailing venue and the Newry and Mourne/Louth region as a tourism destination."
An estimated 75,000 business opportunities are expected to arise from the London 2012 project, with a value of about €7.8 billion.