Tom Welch, blamed in several probes as the key figure in a pay-for-votes bid scandal for the 2002 Olympics, would consider a deal to testify against International Olympic Committee members.

US Justice Department prosecutors looking into the scandal that rocked the Olympic movement have made no offers, but Welch's lawyer Tom Schaffer said his client would talk if made immune from prosecution.

Welch has repeatedly denied wrong-doing and has yet to be charged even as the FBI looks into $1.2 million in gifts, money and favours for IOC members to influence votes for the 2002 Winter Games selection.

The US Congress has scheduled a hearing for next month to look into the Olympic bid process.

US Representative Fred Taylor on Tuesday asked IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch to explain IOC procedures for awarding Games based on the Salt Lake scandal and reports Atlanta officials plied IOC members with gifts and favours to win the 1996 Centennial Summer Olympics.

Samaranch declined an invitation to appear before US lawmakers earlier this year, instead sending US IOC members, but Upton said, "I will not hesitate to use all legal means to ensure he will participate in the hearing."

Meanwhile, a senior IOC official said yesterday he expected the Games to be held in Africa in the next 10 years.

"I am prepared to say that within a decade we will have the Games in Africa," Jacques Rogge, IOC commissioner for the 2000 Sydney Olympics, said.

No African city has ever held the Olympics. Rogge also said the number of sporting venues at the Olympics had "reached the very limit" and that the Games were under threat of "becoming a monster" unless the number of events was scaled back.

Rogge, an influential member of the IOC's ruling executive board, is one of the favourites to succeed Juan Antonio Samaranch as IOC president.