LONDON -- Sprinter Jerome Young and his U.S. relay teammates should know by the end of the month if they will be stripped of their gold medals from the Sydney Olympics.

The World Anti-Doping Agency and the IOC are investigating accusations that Young tested positive for steroids in 1999 but was cleared on appeal by U.S. officials and allowed to run in Sydney.

WADA chairman Dick Pound said Thursday he expects a decision from the joint commission before Oct. 1, the deadline for resolving any cases from the 2000 Summer Games.

Young was on the U.S. team that won the 1,600-meter relay. He ran in the opening round and semifinal heats. The Americans, anchored by Michael Johnson in the final, finished ahead of Jamaica and Russia.

Pound has said the accusations against Young, reported by the Los Angeles Times, undercut the legitimacy of the U.S. victory. He has pushed for the U.S. medals to be removed.

"Everybody wants to have a resolution of it one way or the other before Oct. 1," Pound said in a conference call. "I have instructed our representatives to make sure that happens."

The accusations were reported during last month's World Championships in Paris, where Young won gold medals in the 400 and the 1,600-meter relay.

Young said he "never committed a doping offense." The statement stopped short of a denial that he was the unidentified Olympic gold medalist exonerated of a drug offense before the Sydney Games.

USA Track & Field had refused to provide information on the 1999 case to the sport's world governing body, citing confidentiality rules. The dispute went to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which ruled in January the USATF did not have to disclose details of that case and 12 other positive tests from 1996-00.

"Nobody has ever made clear exactly what happened and what steps were taken and what reasons were given to invalidate a positive laboratory result," Pound said. "Covering it up and maintaining this conspiracy of silence is what adds fuel to the fire on this."

The IOC also has asked the U.S. Olympic Committee for more details on alleged positive tests in the late 1980s. The USOC is to make a report to the IOC executive board next week in Lausanne, Switzerland.

On other issues, Pound said WADA had collected about 60 percent of its dues from national governments for this year's budget of $21 million. The money had been due at the end of 2002.

Pound said he was "100 percent confident" the United States would make its $1 million payment -- the largest share of any country.

Pound said WADA's executive committee, which meets Monday and Tuesday in Montreal, will consider sanctions against governments that fail to pay.

The executive committee also will approve a new global list of banned substances, to go into effect Jan. 1. The proposed list would drop caffeine and pseudoephdrine -- contained in common cold medicines -- from the banned category, The Associated Press reported Wednesday.