London 2012 Olympics: Lord Coe agrees to talks with Dow Chemical protesters

Coe said he would personally meet representatives of the protest groups following a small but vocal demonstration outside of the International Olympic Committee's final inspection of the London Games preparations.

A coalition of five different protest groups presented London Olympic Games communications director Jackie Brock Doyle with five boxes of signatures – a 28,000-strong petition on Change.org and a 30,000-strong petition on SumOfUs – calling for a public apology from Games organisers and a financial contribution from Dow Chemical to mirror the company's £7 million cost of the wrap to help remediate the contaminated land and water supply, which is ongoing in Bhopal.

The demonstration featured a "die-in" of five people lying on the ground representing the 25,000 dead from the 1984 gas leak disaster in Bhopal at the Indian Union Carbide factory. Dow Chemical has since bought Union Carbide's parent company but company officials deny they have any ongoing liabilities, saying the gas leak had nothing to do with them.

But Coe said he had ongoing dialogue with faith, community and protest groups and would agree to meet specifically with some of the anti-Dow protesters

"Of course I will meet them," Coe said.

Last year activists burned an effigy of Coe and an Indian politician on the anniversary of the Bhopal leak. Today they held up signs saying "Justice for Bhopal" and "Don't Contaminate the Olympics".

Both Coe and the IOC president have strongly defended the reputation of Dow Chemical and its status as a £62.5 million IOC global sponsor and it is highly unlikely that the IOC or Locog will change their supportive position.

On the wider issue of protest groups interrupting the Games with the blocking of traffic lanes, Coe said he wasn't too concerned.

"This is a democratic nation, we have a tradition of peaceful demonstrations as long as it doesn't become a public order issue, we take it as that."