A new series of athletics meetings known as the Diamond League will be launched next year in a bid to offer more head-to-head competition and expand the sport globally, the IAAF said on Monday.

Twelve meetings in Europe, the United States and China are under contract for the series, which will replace the six-city Europe-only Golden League. Three more meetings are on standby.

"This is the first step in a number of changes to make the sport more exciting," Patrick Magyar, the Zurich meeting director, told a teleconference announcing the series.

International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) president Lamine Diack said he hoped top athletes would meet three or four times annually in addition to the Olympics or world championships.

But spectators should not expect a showdown between 100 metres record holder Usain Bolt, former holder Asafa Powell and world champion Tyson Gay every time the race is held, said Mark Wetmore, organiser of the New York meeting and Gay's agent.

"The chances of Usain Bolt, Asafa Powell and Tyson Gay all meeting in seven 100 metre races in the Diamond League are very unlikely," Wetmore told Reuters.

"But the series will give fans the opportunity for more competition among all lead athletes."

For example, Bolt and Powell might race at one meeting and Powell and Gay at another, he said.

Confirmed for the series are London, plus one other British meeting, Lausanne, Oslo, Stockholm, Monaco, Paris, Brussels, Zurich, the American cities of New York and Eugene, Oregon, and a meeting in China, in either Beijing or Shanghai.

DIAMOND PRIZE

Meetings in Berlin, Rome and Doha could be added, the IAAF said, adding that the final composition of the league would be confirmed at the end of the 2009 season.

Meetings in Berlin, Oslo, Rome, Paris, Zurich and Brussels currently comprise the Golden League.

In each of the 32 events, athletes with the most points at the end of the series will be awarded a four-carat diamond worth approximately $80,000, the IAAF said.

There will be at least 16 events at each meeting and they will rotate among the series cities.

Each meeting will have $416,000 in prize money and the top athletes of the sport will be engaged with centralised contracts to ensure their participation, the IAAF said.

UK Athletics said the London meeting would be the only two-day event in the series and that the second British meeting would be held in Gateshead.

"For our athletes it will provide great opportunities to compete in regular top flight competition as we build toward the London Olympics in 2012," UK Athletics chief executive Niels de Vos told www.uka.org.uk.