Basso set to hear fate in early June

ROME, May 15 (Reuters) Cyclist Ivan Basso could learn his punishment for attempted doping at the start of next month, the Italian Olympic Committee's (CONI) doping prosecutor said today.

The 2006 Giro D'Italia champion, who denies ever taking performance-enhancing drugs or using blood transfusions, admitted last week that he had intended to dope and was involved in the Operation Puerto scandal in Spain.

Ettore Torri, the CONI prosecutor, told a news conference that a punishment would be discussed at a meeting in June but that a precautionary suspension imposed on Italian Basso yesterday could, in any case, last for four months.

Torri said he was waiting for any new developments in the case and added that Basso had collaborated after three hearings in the hope of a reduction in a potential two-year ban.

''In the first interrogation he denied it all. In the second he began to speak,'' Torri said, before hinting that Basso was worried about reprisals for the controversy.

''Basso feared that they would come and take his 2006 Giro which he holds very dear. The athlete feared various things, of being thrown out of the group and losing his job. And there was the danger of physical damage, in races you could finish up in a ditch.'' REUTERS TB RK2310