SYDNEY, Feb 1: Australian IOC member Phil Coles attacked the US Federal Bureau of 'Investigation (FBI) today for naming him on a list of people it is studying in its investigation of the Salt Lake City bribes scandal, reports AFP.

Coles named with 60 other past and present members of the Internationa] Olympic Committee (IOC) including fellow Australian Kevan Gosper, said they had nothing to hide but it I was very distressing to be named.

"It's disgusting," he said, "I feel as though I have been hit by a runaway truck."

The FBI is examining links between IOC members and universities in Salt Lake City to discover whether any scholarships were given to return for votes and is understood to be checking delegates and their families against student lists.

Officials here say such inducements would have little appeal in Australia where places even at top universities are easy to get and heavily subsidised.

Coles said it was "a fair line of investigation" and that he had no problem with the probe.

He added: "But I do have the Groblem where somebody in the nited States has seen fit to publish or release the names and that is extremely damaging to me and my family."

He said it was possible delegates could have been driven, past a university because there had been a plan to include universities as part of Salt Lake City's accommodation for , athletes. but his family had been offered nothing.