Sydney's bid for the 2000 Olympics may have been more dubious than Salt Lake City's bribes-tainted one, claims one of the men behind the International Olympic Committee's investigation into the Salt Lake City scandal.

Sydney had been lucky to escape the level of scrutiny applied to the North American host of the 2002 Winter Olympics, Canadian IOC member Dick Pound said.

Pound's Salt Lake investigation led to the resignation of several top Olympic officials in the city and the expulsion of 10 IOC members.

But in an interview the IOC vice-president has accused Sydney bid organisers of withholding information about weather and traffic conditions during the bid.

He also criticised last-minute grants given by Australian officials to two African IOC members ahead of Sydney's win over Beijing by a two-vote margin.

"What is suspect is the choice of the host city," Pound said. "Sydney is not without its own controversy there. Frankly, given the results, arguably far more so than Salt Lake."

Pound said Sydney's bid "could be more of an issue" because of its narrow victory over Beijing while "Salt Lake was going to win anyway."

But he said there was no point in reopening wounds by launching an investigation into Sydney's bid and Australian officials fired back that they had already been cleared of any wrong-doing by the IOC.