LAUSANNE, Switzerland. Dec 11: Just as the International Olympic Committee set out to embrace reform, the organisation's commit mSfit to change was called into question, reports AP.

As the IOC prepared to vote Saturday on reforms designed to repair its scandal-tainted image, it sent out mixed signals about whether it is truly determined to tackle corruption.

Members of the IOC ethics commission, set up in the wake of the Salt Lake City bribery scandal, said it wasn't their Joo to initiate new investigations or to open inquires into past cases of alleged abuses.

The ethics panel chairman. Keba Mbaye of Senegal, angrily dismissed suggestions that the IOC had fostered a "culture of corruption."

"If there were Just one honest man in an organisation. 1 think that would be sufficient not to cast a shadow on the entire organisation." he said. "Even if it's 20 per cent (who were guilty). I find that there are still 80 per cent who are honest." The ethics commission, composed of five outside members and three IOC delegates, had been billed as an independent panel which would clean up any corruption cases.

But the overall picture conveyed Friday was of a commission that falls for short of being a watchdog.

The ’ IOC's official spokesman later insisted the ethics panel s role had been misunderstood and that the IOC was fully committed to dealing with any new corruption allegations.

The willingness of the IOC to confront all the issues should not be questioned." spokesman Franklin Servan-Schreiber said. "If there is any new allegation that is substantiated, the IOC will deal with it. I have no

doubt."

On Saturday, the IOC begins voting on a reform package meant to show the world that the 105-year-old organization has cleaned up its act following the vote-buying scandal stemming from Salt Lake's winning bid for the 2002 Winter Gaines.

Ten IOC members were expelled or forced to resign, and 10 others received warnings in connection with cash, gifts and other inducements accepted from Salt Like bidders.

Samaranch, who has survived incessant calls for his resignation from outside the IOC, is putting his leadership on the line this weekend by asking members to give up some privi-leges and perks.

While the bulk of the 50 reforms should pass easily, there could be resistance on a few proposals — the introduction of an eight-year term of office for members, with the possibility of re-election, and a ban or tight restrictions on visits to bid cities.

Samaranch is to testify in Washington next Wednesday lie-fore the House Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. Lawmakers have threatened to cut off the flow of American sponsorship and

television funds to the IOC unless significant reforms are enacted.

Much of Friday's news conference centered on the case of powerful IOC executive board member Kim Un-yong of South Korea, the highest-ranking IOC delegate implicated in the Salt Lake affair.

Kim received a "severe warning" from the IOC earlier this year. In May. the ethics commission gave his case and that of Australia's Phil Coles to the executive board without reviewing them. It said the board already had the cases under control.

Kim’s son. John Kim, was indicated In September as part of the Justice Department's investigation of the Salt Lake case. He was charged with lying to investigators and entering the United States with a fraudulently obtained green card.

Asked earlier this week whether the elder Kim's case was being reviewed in light of his son's indictment. IOC director general Francois Carrard said. 'There are no new facts as far as we are concerned. It would be a matter for the ethics commission."

But Commission members said Friday they have no power to initiate further investigations on the case, which Servan-Schreiber said is "closed until there is now proof."

"If there is something new. the executive board (that originally considered the case) will consider it," he said. "Whether they deal with it or whether they decide to send it to the ethics commission, that will be their call."

Servan-Schreiber said the commission "cannot be an investigative body."

'They are volunteers...It will be a Judging body." he said.

But he insisted a full-time ethics commissioner to be appointed next year will be "very effective" in dealing with allegations of corruption.