The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has switched next month's board meeting to Sydney from Colorado Springs.

The decision was taken after fears that at least one IOC member could be arrested by US authorities over the Salt Lake City scandal. Officially the IOC said yesterday the decision to change the venue was taken after an invitation from the president of the Sydney organising committee Michael Knight.

"This meeting gives the IOC the chance to demonstrate the great importance of these Games for the Olympic Movement and an opportunity to show our absolute support for the organising committee of these Games," said an IOC spokesman.

But IOC sources insist it was the possibility of action by the FBI that forced the switch.

"With the justice department investigation into the Salt Lake City affair continuing and the Sydney Olympics rapidly approaching, the last thing the IOC needed was to have an executive board member being arrested the moment he arrived in the US," said one IOC member.

Australian IOC vice-president Kevin Gosper, who is hoping to replace IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch when he retires in 2001, said the change from the US to Sydney was logical.

"There's simply no reason to go to America at this stage . . . the US is where our problems started, Lausanne is where we're headquarted, but here (Sydney) is where the Games will be."

The board meeting will run concurrently with meetings of the Association of National Olympic Committees and the IOC Coordination Commission. Sydney organisers hope to shift world interest in the executive board's first meeting since it implemented a reform package to focus attention on Sydney's preparedness to host the Games.

"He (Samaranch) thinks it (moving the meeting) would be a demonstration of the executive board's confidence in SOCOG," said Gosper.

Samaranch's visit would likely be between February 13th and 19th - his first since May 1998 when he toured Olympic facilities. The Salt Lake City corruption scandal brought about the resignation or expulsion of 10 IOC members and forced the Olympic body to pass a package of wide-ranging reforms, including banning visits by members to cities looking to host Games.