Howard supports ban on officials

Earlier, International Olympic Committee officials said IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch had written to Howard expressing serious concern at the ban on two accredited members of the Olympic family.

In 1994, ching was barred from entering Canada for the World Basketball Championships under immigration rules dealing with security threats and criminals. British author Andrew Jennings, in his book The Great Olympic Scandal, made a number of allegations about Rakhimov, suggesting possible links to organised crime in the former Soviet Union.

Howard said he would reply to Samaranch, backing the original banning decision made by immigration Minister Philip Ruddock.

“It was always part of the deal when Sydney got the Games, that although proper respect would be paid to the accreditation procedures of the international Olympic group, when it came to matters of security, naturally the Australian immigration authorities had the ultimate right to recommend certain action,” Howard told Radio 2.