A confidential International Olympic Committee (IOC) report into the Salt Lake City Olympic scandal admits that influence peddling within the Olympic movement goes back decades, it was reported yesterday.

And the 24-page draft report, prepared by top IOC official Dick Pound, reveals that up to 16 IOC members could be expelled for their involvement in the Salt Lake City affair.

The final report is to be delivered this weekend when the IOC executive committee meet in Lausanne to decide what action to take on the scandal. Pound's draft report, according to the US financial newspaper Wall Street Journal, which has seen a copy, shows that Salt Lake City spent more than $780,000 in gifts and payments during and after winning the 2002 Winter Games.

And the report states: "Inappropriate activities of certain members of the IOC did not commence with the candidacy of Salt Lake City."

The report then outlines how influence-peddling by bidding cities and IOC members goes back decades.

The biggest threat facing the IOC, says Pound, is the investigation being carried out by the US Justice Department.

The Canadian lawyer, who is one of the front runners to replace IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch when he retires in 2001, told the paper that some members caught up in the scandal may resign rather than be thrown out.

So far 13 names of people involved in the scandal have leaked out and one of them, Finnish IOC member Pirjo Haeggman, resigned on Tuesday.