Olympic boxing chiefs forced to probe over dodgy ref accusations

 The Xinhua state news agency on Saturday quoted as Wu as saying in an interview that the AIBA is "determined to clean the house" after the Games.

AIBA technical delegate Rodel Obreja of Romania on Friday told reporters at the boxing venue that AIBA officials tried to manipulate the assignment of of referees and judges. He did not give details.

Obreja was suspended from his job by the AIBA because he had talked about an ongoing investigation and WU said he is at the centre of an investigation himself.

Wu said that Obreja tried to influenec officials, but AIBA said they were removed ahead of the bouts and the disciplinary looking into the case.

Olympic boxing has been the centre of controversy for many years and a more transparent scoring system was introduced after infamous decisions in favour of South Korean boxers 1988 in Seoul.

But there is still plenty of unrest and many boxers have felt cheated in Beijing as well even though there were only four protests in more than 250 bouts.

Wu has started a major clean-up within the AIBA after oursting Anwar Chowdhry as president two years ago and vowed he will continue this way.

"The most important part of our reform is to create an open, clean and transparent environment. We are determined to clean the house," Wu told Xinhua.

Earlier in the day Obreja said he had been asked by high-ranking AIBA officials whom he would like see assigned to judge and referee bouts involving a Romanian.

AIBA President Wu had been scheduled to appear at a news conference. However, he did not attend.

Rumors of improper influence in the assignment of judges and referees have been circulating for two months, Smith said he was told.

In a prepared release before the late-night news conference, AIBA said "it had obtained information regarding a possible attempt on the part of certain individuals, both within the organization and within the competition, to manipulate the competition."

According to the release, only four protests have been filed in 249 Olympic bouts. According to the same release, the International Olympic Committee has been notified that an investigation is under way. An IOC observer, independent of AIBA, will oversee the gold-medal bouts during the final weekend of the 2008 Games.

News of the investigation was disclosed after a day that included some controversial results from the computerized scoring. Judges hit a button when they see a punch. Popular Chinese light-flyweight Shiming Zou beat Ireland's Paddy Barnes 15-0.

American heavyweight Deontay Wilder, the only U.S. boxer to win a medal, a bronze, scored only one point over four 2-minute rounds in a 7-1 loss to Clemente Russo of Italy.

"We know that we have a scoring system that needs to be reformed," Virgets said.

Computerized scoring has been in place since documented bribes were paid for judges to score against American Roy Jones Jr. in a gold medal bout at 1988's Seoul Games.

"For 20 years, our organization has been under a cloud of suspicion," Virgets said.