Olympic officials yesterday postponed a key meeting on corruption at which they were due to decide on the final number of members to throw out of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) because of the Salt Lake scandal.

An IOC ad-hoc panel, which has already recommended the permanent expulsion of five members for breaking rules on taking gifts from Salt Lake following its own internal investigation, held a global conference call on the scandal late on Tuesday.

The panel has been studying more allegations made in a recent report by a Salt Lake ethics committee and its final recommendations were due to be put to the IOC's ruling executive board for approval yesterday.

But IOC officials said it had been difficult to organise a conference call for the board and the organisation would wait until next Monday to stage the meeting.