India will be safe for England's athletes to compete in, a senior officer from the Metropolitan Police said after visiting New Delhi in a recent security visit.

John Yates, the Assistant Commissioner, made the assessment after visiting the Indian capital to inspect the arrangements for the hockey World Cup, where is due to open there on February 28, and the Games, which open on October 3.

After touring the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium, which will be the centrepiece of the World Cup, he said: "Security plans for the hockey World Cup look robust and the UK looks forward to working with the Indian authorities.

“UK and India have agreed to cooperate on security for major sporting events as Delhi will host the Games this year and London will host the Olympics and Paralympics in 2012."

It is the second trip that the Metropolitan Police have made to India since it was claimed by The Daily Telegraph in December that England would boycott the Commonwealth Games because they feared they would be in danger.

Richard Stagg, the British High Commissioner in India, last month had claimed that a delegation from Scotland Yard had assessed the security risk as low.

Indian officials were again keen to emphasise that the British police would have no formal role at either the World Cup or Commonwealth Games.

Lalit Bhanot, the general secretary of the Commonwealth Games, said: "They are not going to run the security here for either the Games or the World Cup.

"They are here only to assess security arrangements for their players and officials."