Australian officials divided over doping investigation

CANBERRA, Australia -- Australian sports officials are divided over the handling of a suspected doping violation that's stalling the announcement of the country's team for the Athens Games.

The Australian Sports Commission, a government-run national sports administration and advisory agency, has refused to give the Australian Olympic Committee details about an athlete whose name emerged from inquiries by the country's customs service.

The athlete, reportedly from the track and field squad, is suspected of importing a banned substance in 1998.

The Olympic committee, which has delayed announcing the complete Athens team until background checks on all its members are complete, advocates transparent investigations and wouldn't sign a confidentiality agreement on the customs information.

But the sports commission said privacy laws prevent the athlete being publicly identified.

The new case follows a string of doping-related allegations against athletes previously named to Australia's Olympic team.

Former world champion sprint cyclist Sean Eadie was last week served with an infraction notice alleging that the Australian Customs Service in 1999 intercepted a package that was addressed to him that held 16 tablets containing a growth hormone called anterior pituitary peptide.

He was dropped from the Australian Olympic team, and was set to appeal the infraction notice in the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Monday.

Weightlifter Caroline Pileggi last week lost an appeal against her dismissal from the Olympic team for refusing to submit to a doping test, and the selection of another weightlifter is pending the outcome of a doping test.