We are not scared of smear campaign: Samaranch

Sydney: International Olympic Committee (IOC) chief Juan Antonio Samaranch said on Thursday he was not worried about attacks on the organisation from international anti-graft campaigners.

Publishing a survey on world corruption, the head of the Berlin-based "Transparency International" on Wednesday hit out at the IOC, saying some of the leaders of the "bribe-scarred" organisation were still "running the show".

The IOC officials have been battling to improve the image of the organisation since the biggest bribery scandal in the history erupted at the end of 1998.

Asked if he was concerned about the attacks, the IOC president, who faced numerous calls to quit during the scandal, said, "We are not worried. We are used to it."

But IOC executive board member Kevan Gosper admitted the organisation had not completely recovered after 10 members were forced to leave for accepting gifts from Salt Lake City during the successful bid for the 2002 Winter Games.

"We have never claimed that we have fully recovered our reputation," Gosper said. "I say we have been working at recovering and I believe we've gone a long way."



(c) Reuters Limited.