MADRID, Spain -- The IOC will help Iraqi athletes prepare for the 2004 Olympics as part of a plan to assist the rebuilding of sports in the country.

The International Olympic Committee executive board decided Saturday to send a delegation to Baghdad to help Olympic hopefuls following the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime by the U.S.-led coalition.

"We will focus on the athletes and do everything we can to help them with training so they can participate in Athens,'' IOC president Jacques Rogge said.

The board acted on recommendations of the IOC ethics commission, which confirmed allegations that Iraq's former Olympic committee tortured and jailed athletes.

The Iraqi committee was headed by Saddam Hussein's elder son, Odai. The committee's Baghdad headquarters largely were destroyed in bombing raids early in the Iraq war.

The IOC said the Iraqi committee is suspended pending the formation of a new body complying with the Olympic Charter and having no ties to the torture carried out under the previous regime.

Pere Miro, the official in charge of relations with national Olympic committees, will lead a delegation to Iraq.

No date for the trip was set, but IOC director general Francois Carrard said it should take place before the next IOC meeting in Prague, Czech Republic, in late June.

Rogge said Miro's mission will be to identify potential athletes and arrange coaching, training and other support. Some of the training will take place abroad due to the lack of infrastructure in Iraq, he said.

Rogge said Iraqi athletes will be eligible to compete in Athens no matter how long it takes to form a recognized new Olympic committee. If necessary, Iraqi athletes could compete in Athens under the Olympic flag and anthem. Similar arrangements were made for athletes from the former Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and East Timor.

Iraq sent 46 athletes to the 1980 Moscow Olympics but only four to the 2000 Sydney Games.

A group of Iraqi exiles in Europe recently formed a provisional Olympic committee. The so-called Free Iraq Olympic Group won the support of the Kuwait-based Olympic Council of Asia on Tuesday. Its members said they plan to return to Iraq in coming days.