LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- The IOC ruled out action -- for now-- against U.S. Olympic gold medalist Jerome Young over allegations that he failed a drug test a year before the 2000 Sydney Games.

IOC director general Francois Carrard said Wednesday the committee had no jurisdiction over the case and was asking track and field's world governing body to reopen the matter.

The International Olympic Committee and the World Anti-Doping Agency have been investigating accusations that Young tested positive for steroids in 1999 but was cleared on appeal by U.S. officials. He went on to win a gold medal in Sydney as part of the 1,600-meter relay team.

WADA chairman Dick Pound has pushed for the gold medals to be stripped from Young and the rest of the relay team.

"No legal action can be taken at this point by the IOC," said Carrard, part of the four-member panel investigating the case. "The IOC can only contemplate legal action if the matter is reconsidered by the IAAF."

Carrard said the IOC's hands were effectively tied, and it was up to the International Association of Athletics Federations and U.S. Olympic Committee to deal first with the case.

"Let's see what they do," he said. "We have asked the IAAF to use all their authority to have the matter reconsidered. It's not up to us to directly handle a matter that, to us, was handled legitimately."

The investigative panel was formed following accusations, first reported by the Los Angeles Times, that Young tested positive for nandrolone in 1999 but was exonerated. The case was never disclosed by U.S. officials.

Young, who won gold in the 400 meters and 1,600 relay at last month's World Championships, said he never committed a doping offense.

Carrard said the IOC would act quickly if the IAAF finds Young was improperly cleared.

"We think there should be some course of action following the disclosure of the name of the athlete," he said. "The IAAF should exercise its own authority to bring USA Track & Field to order so that the whole matter can be reconsidered. We think this is a matter of principle. That's why we are pushing the matter."

Carrard said the four-man panel, created on Sept. 10, had conferred by conference call six times. The panel did not speak to Young or any other outside witnesses.

Pound has pushed for a decision before Oct. 1, citing a three-year deadline for resolving cases from the 2000 Games.

But Carrard, a lawyer, said the three-year deadline does not apply because the IOC never made any decision in the case.

The IAAF repeatedly demanded that USA Track & Field disclose the names of athletes who were cleared of doping offenses before the Sydney Olympics. USATF refused, citing confidentiality rules.

The dispute went to the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport, which ruled in January that USATF did not have to divulge details of 13 positive cases from 1996-2000.

The IAAF and USATF say they remain bound by the arbitration decision. But Carrard said the disclosure of Young's name would allow for the ruling to be reopened.

IAAF anti-doping chief Arne Ljungqvist has said the world body could only reopen the case if the athlete came forward and admitted to the positive test.

Earlier, IOC president Jacques Rogge said the committee considered Young innocent until proven guilty.

"If there is no proof, then no sanctions," Rogge said. "It could be that the athlete was exonerated for good reasons."

The decision to refrain from action came on the first day of IOC executive board meetings. Further U.S. doping cases will be examined Thursday when the USOC reports on its drug-testing program from 1985 to 2000.

The IOC asked for the details after the USOC's former doping control chief contended many athletes failed tests but competed in the Olympics after the USOC cleared them on grounds of inadvertent use.

"We want to hear why the athletes were exonerated," Rogge told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Rogge described the USOC's former confidentiality rules, which prevented disclosure of doping cases, as a "recipe for cover-ups."

"What is important is that things are put on the table and people can make a judgment," Rogge said.

The USOC delegation will be led by acting president Bill Martin.

"The report will show there was no coordinated effort to suppress or cover up results," USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said.

The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday that the USOC sent documents to the IOC indicating there was no evidence of a systematic cover-up of doping and that all but one of 24 athletes won Olympic medals in the past two decades after testing positive for banned drugs "already served a suspension or received other appropriate discipline under the applicable rules."

The exception is Young.

U.S. Olympic officials noted that there is no documentation offering a "reasonable explanation" for the decision by USA Track & Field to exonerate Young after he appealed his doping violation, according to the Times.

The U.S. delegation also will stress the drug-testing program in America has been "significantly" improved since being taken over by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency in 2000, Seibel said.