The report, by a local ethics committee, laid blame on two top bid committee officials, Tom Welch and Dave Johnson, saying they acted without the knowledge of other board members.

The report named 13 people who were on the receiving end of the bid committee's largesse, which totalled well over $500,000.

Welch's $10,000 a month consulting contract-- in force after he resigned in 1997 as President and Chief Executive officer of the bid committee-- was cancelled in January.

Members to be screened

MONTREAL: The International Olympic Committee official heading an investigation into the bribery scandal surrounding Salt Lake City's 2002 Winter Games bid, said the Olympic movement may have to examine the way it selects it's members.

``It is anissue that we should take under advisement, and I think we will,'' IOC vice-president Richard Pound, a Canadian lawyer, said yesterday in a telephone conference call with reporters.

Pound said his six-member commission would examine the new revelations of the ethics committee report on the bribery scandal before reporting to a special session of the full IOC membership in Lausanne, Switzerland on March 17.

Queen not snubbed

SYDNEY: Australia's monarchist Prime Minister John Howard today dismissed suggestions he had insulted Queen Elizabeth II by deciding he should open the Olympic Games here next year.

Howard, who has been criticised by the British media, insisted it had been a longstanding position that the Prime Minister of the time should declare open the Games. He added that the Queen had been informed through proper channels.

A referendum is due in November to decide whether Australia should sever it's two century old link to the British monarch and become a republic.