ATHLETICS: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said yesterday it was investigating charges of "inappropriate conduct" in the 2012 Games bidding process.

The inquiry was set up after the BBC television programme Panorama said undercover reporters found evidence IOC votes were being offered for sale, stirring memories of the corruption scandal that rocked the Olympic movement six years ago.

"During a year-long investigation, Panorama went undercover to find out what it takes to get the games, and it would appear that the answer is simple - cash," Panorama said in a statement two weeks before the 2004 Olympics open in Athens.

London, Paris, New York, Madrid and Moscow were named on a shortlist in May for the 2012 Games. The host city will be named in July 2005.

Panorama journalists posed as consultants acting for London businessmen who wanted the Games to be staged in the British capital, the statement said.

"The men who say they can buy these votes are veteran Olympic insiders: professional agents who, in the past, have been paid hundreds of thousands of pounds by previous bid cities to help get IOC votes," Panorama said.

BBC news also said the programme, to be broadcast on Wednesday, shows at least one IOC member flouting selection process rules for the 2012 Games.

The IOC said the claims were being investigated by its ethics commission, set up in 1999 as part of an overhaul of the bidding process after the bribery crisis surrounding the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.

"Given that this investigation is currently underway and that the IOC does not know the content of the BBC Panorama programme and is awaiting its broadcast, the IOC is not in a position to provide any further information at this stage," an IOC spokeswoman said.

An IOC investigation into the Salt Lake City scandal accused 13 Olympic officials of accepting bribes from bid organisers, forcing resignations from four IOC members, and the president and vice-president of the Salt Lake City Olympic committee.

Rules governing contact between IOC members and bidding cities were tightened following the Salt Lake City affair.

London's 2012 Olympic bid chairman Sebastian Coe distanced the British bid team from the allegations yesterday.

It is not believed the programme found any impropriety with the London bid team.

London 2012 chief executive officer Keith Mills has written to the IOC enclosing copies of correspondence between the bid team and the Panorama producers which "reaffirmed the bid's total commitment and adherence to the ethical rules of the IOC".

Mike Lee, the London 2012 bid's director of communications, questioned the methods the BBC used in the investigation.

"We must make it absolutely clear that there was no London 2012 involvement in any shape or form in the undercover operation carried out by the BBC Panorama programme," he said.

"The attempts to represent east London business interests and apparently obtain votes for London were entirely concocted by the programme makers themselves and were done without our knowledge.

"It is for others to judge whether this particular form of misrepresentation was proper in the circumstances," he said.

Meanwhile, Athens was finally declared ready for the Olympics yesterday with all venues and transport projects operational two weeks before the opening ceremony.

The final piece of the transport puzzle is in place after the opening of the rail link to the airport while the Olympic village welcomed its first athletes.

"Today is a great day, all venues have been delivered," Games general secretary Spyros Capralos told reporters. "The Games have begun for us with the opening of the Olympic village."