The International Olympic Committee (IOC) confirmed yesterday that the 2002 Winter Games would remain with Salt Lake City despite admissions of bribery.

Salt Lake City officials have admitted paying for the housing, travel and education of relatives of IOC members as well as giving expensive gifts and free health care.

"The IOC has made clear the Games will not be withdrawn from Salt Lake City," spokeswoman Michele Verdier said. She said comments by Switzerland's veteran IOC member Marc Hodler saying the US city might lose the Games because of financial problems resulting from the scandal were made in his personal capacity.

"He was not speaking officially for the IOC," she added.

Hodler said yesterday that a $350 million shortfall will make it difficult for Salt Lake City to stage the Games.

"The mood in Salt Lake City has changed and the problem of financing is still there," he said. "The organising committee still has to find $350 million, I don't know if they'll find it."

Hodler believes alternative venues exist for the Games should Salt Lake City fail to raise sufficient sponsorship. He named American venue Lake Placid and Canadian resort Calgary, both former hosts of the Winter Games.

Asked about Hodler's comment, Verdier said: "There are no financial problems presently."

Hodler (80), started the current storm when he said last month that agents offered candidates blocs of votes for millions of dollars.

Following his comments and reports in the US media of inducements allegedly offered to some of the IOC members involved in the selection, the president of the Salt Lake City Organising Committee (SLOC) and his deputy have resigned.

At the same time, the IOC has launched its own internal investigation on the corruption charges, and Verdier said the results of these would be released after an executive board meeting, on January 24th or 25th.

The IOC president, Juan Antonio Samaranch, speaking in Warsaw, promised to punish any IOC members implicated in the scandal. "We are going to act very fast," the PAP news agency quoted Samaranch as telling members of Poland's Olympic Committee.

"If it turns out the behaviour of some IOC members was reprehensible they will have to bear the consequences.

"We are going to take a final decision on January 24th. I hope after that day peace will return to the IOC and we will become more united than ever before."

In San Antonio, Texas, US IOC member Anita DeFrantz said up to 12 IOC members could be asked to resign.

Rene Paquet, the former head of the Quebec City 2002 bid committee, said the Canadian city could sue the IOC. "We are considering suing because we have been involved in a process where the rules of the law may not have been followed by a dishonest candidate," Pacquet said. "We are looking at a substantial financial reimbursement."