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Olympic compromise sidelines Australia's Coles

Olympics organisers in Sydney expressed relief today that disgraced Australian International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Phil Coles will play no further part in putting on next year's Olympic Games.

Under a compromise thrashed out at an IOC board meeting in Seoul, Coles will resign his directorship of the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG) but will remain an IOC delegate.

''It means that Coles will get to sit in the VIP box for the opening ceremony next year,'' a source close to SOCOG said. ''But it also means that his part in organising the Sydney Games is over.''

Coles was found guilty of ''serious negligence'' by allowing a secret dossier on IOC members that he and his partner, Patricia Rosenbrock, had compiled to come into the possession of the Salt Lake City team that bid successfully to host the 2002 Winter Games.

The 67-year-old former Olympic kayaker had fought to keep his SOCOG place despite being asked to go by SOCOG president Michael Knight. Knight, also minister for the Olympics, went public with his concern that Coles' continued involvement with the Sydney Games was scaring off sponsors.

Knight urged Coles to go after fast-food giant McDonald's, a major Olympic sponsor, declared that it was unhappy with his continued association with the sporting spectacle. Also demanding the exit of Coles was deputy prime minister Tim Fischer and SOCOG chief executive Sandy Hollway.

Coles claimed the timing of the revelation that Salt Lake city got hold of 400 pages of classified information proved the existence of a campaign to undermine him.

Three months aga, Coles received the severest punishment, short of expulsion, for accepting lavish hospitality from the Salt Lake city bid team.

DPA