The International Olympic Committee decided on Saturday to suspend the membership of Bulgarian Ivan Slavkov who has been implicated in an alleged Olympic bidding corruption.

The decision came after the IOC executive board met on Saturday morning in Athens to discuss the report of the IOC's ethics commission who launched a probe into the claims by the BBC broadcaster.

"The IOC executive board has decided to provisionally deprive Mr Ivan Slavkov of all the rights, prerogatives and functions deriving from his membership of the IOC throughout the inquiry," said the IOC.

Slavkov was secretly filmed by an undercover BBC television crew discussing how votes could be bought in the campaign to host the 2012 Summer Games.

Four agents, who have connections with the Olympic family, also promised to the BBC reporters, posing as consultants representing London businessmen, as many as 54 votes for London.

The IOC president Jacques Rogge told reporters that the move to suspend Slavkov showed the "zero tolerance" of IOC to any corruption behavior.

The BBC report is the latest allegation of corruption against the IOC since the Salt Lake City scandal, which broke in late 1998 and led to the ouster of 10 members for receiving cash, gifts and other incentives during the bid for the 2002 Winter Games.

Source: Xinhua