American sprinter Jerome Young's clearance to compete in the Sydney Olympics despite failing a drugs test is to be investigated by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), it said on Tuesday.

A statement from the IOC said that sanctions could be taken after the disciplinary procedure but did not specify whether they would be against the athlete, the U.S. Olympic Committee, which cleared him to take part in the 2000 Games, or both.

In Tuesday's statement, the Olympic governing body said: "The IOC has been working to find a way to move the issue forward and find the reasons for Jerome Young's exoneration.

"The opening of a disciplinary procedure...is ordered in relation to all circumstances and facts relating to the entry and participation of the athlete in...Sydney 2000."

The IOC move was immediately welcomed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), formed to crack down on doping in sport. "This now leaves the door open for any necessary disciplinary action," said its president Dick Pound

Nobody from the IOC was available to speak when Reuters contacted them on Tuesday. The investigation is expected to be completed by the end of this year, the statement said.

Last week, though, at an IOC executive board meeting in Lausanne, president Jacques Rogge said Young's 4x400 metres Sydney relay gold medal could be taken away and the athlete disqualified over three years after the race.

OWN INQUIRY

It said then that the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), athletics' governing body, would launch its own inquiry into the incident involving Young who last month won a world championship 400 metres individual gold in Paris.

The IOC decision to investigate why Young was effectively exonerated by USOC and allowed to compete in Australia despite allegedly failing a 1999 test for the steroid nandrolone came after a conference call by members of the executive board on Tuesday.

The disciplinary commission comprises IOC vice-president Thomas Bach and IOC executive board member Denis Oswald with IOC director-general Francois Carrard acting as secretary.

The IOC said that the disciplinary commission will have "the right to ask for disclosure of any and all documents, for the hearing of witnesses and experts if necessary".

They have been asked to submit progress and final reports to the IOC and suggest a course of action.

The IOC had initially said last week there was no legal means by which it could investigate the Young case and had asked the USOC as well as the IAAF to reconsider it.