A Melbourne orchestra held a special concert so the piano-playing daughter of a top international Olympic Committee member could show off her musical talents, an official of Melbourne's failed 1996 Olympic bid said yesterday.

Novelist Shane Maloney said the bidding committee encouraged the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra to invite the daughter of South Korean IOC member Kim Yong-un to play with them. The concert took place in front of a packed house.

"Certainly they (the MSO) were prompted at our suggestion to invite her," Maloney said. "I think she probably tinkled in the C division, rather than the A, but certainly she was a competent pianist. She was invited and the MSO played with her," he added.

Maloney's claims come as the IOC is embroiled in a cash-for-votes scandal centred on inducements offered by Salt Lake City for the 2002 Winter Games.

Kim, who helped take the 1988 Games to Seoul, is one of the International Olympic Commitee's most powerful members and has been mentioned as a possible successor to IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch.

Maloney, the organiser of cultural events for the Melbourne bid, said he believed the invitation to play with the orchestra was the type of arrangement that "oiled the wheels of commerce" in the Olympic bidding process.

Melbourne lost to Atlanta when the IOC chose the 1996 Olympic hosts at an IOC session in Tokyo in 1990.

Maloney also said he was sent to the Northern Territory to collect a A$15,000 (US$10,000) Aboriginal dot painting for the Olympic museum in Lausanne.

He said Melbourne organisers decided to give a painting to the museum, after Samaranch let it be known the museum was interested in acquiring an Aboriginal painting with an Olympic theme.

Meanwhile, the vice-president of the IOC has revealed that he once turned down a million dollar bribe. Dick Pound, who is leading the organisation's investigation into the Salt Lake City affair, said: "I once got offered a million bucks in connection with a television deal. And I said `please, you don't have to offer me a million bucks. I want to do this because it's right (for the Olympics)'."

The Montreal lawyer refused to reveal details of the incident, saying only that his comment was intended to show the high standards to which IOC members should strive in light of Salt Lake City's winning bid for the 2002 Winter Games.

"The key is not that the crisis occurred, but how you deal with the crisis," Pound added. And I think the actions we're about to take will make it very clear we insist on the same high standards of behaviour for ourselves as we do for athletes."

Sydney Olympic organising committee president Michael Knight said yesterday he hoped Tuesday's resignation of Finland's Pirjo Haggman from the IOC would prompt others to leave.

Haggman became the first IOC member to resign since allegations of misconduct by delegates were made in relation to Salt Lake's successful bid. She was one of 13 IOC delegates under investigation over allegations they were bribed to vote for the city.

"A number of other people, I'm hopeful, will see the writing on the wall and put in their resignation," said Knight.

"Sometimes, as clearly happened in Salt Lake City, who made a couple of bids before and lost, people take desperate action and they cross the line."

Adelaide's former Lord Mayor, Steve Condous, has called for the "travelling circuses" which visit cities bidding to stage the Commonwealth or Olympic Games to be cleaned up.

He claimed that Adelaide's failed bid to stage the 1998 Commonwealth Games, which went to Kuala Lumpur, saw officials from three countries - Pakistan, Sri Lanka and an unnamed African country - offer to sell their votes.

The latest allegations come at a sensitive time for Australia's Commonwealth Games officials who are currently trying to win the 2008 Games for Melbourne.

The head of Melbourne's bid has insisted the Commonwealth Games has never suffered from the corruption currently overshadowing the Olympic movement. Ron Walker denied he had ever been asked for a bribe and said the city did not have to resort to bribery to win any major event.

"I haven't been asked for any favours at all," he said. "And I defend the gentlemen in the Commonwealth Games. I believe the Commonwealth family is totally different to the International Olympic Committee.

Russian Ski Federation chief Anatoly Akentyev has accused his government of stealing athletes' prize money won at the 1998 Winter Olympics at Nagano.

Akentyev said Larissa Lazutina was the only athlete in the Russian ski federation, including competitors, coaches, doctors and technical staff, who had actually received any money. The rest of the team, which won five gold, two silver and one bronze medal, had so far failed to receive any of their prize money because of bureaucratic delays and the economic crisis in Russia.