Greene is named in drugs claim

The American, a threetime world 100m champion and former world record holder, is one of 12 Olympic medallists identified as drug-takers in evidence given to investigators by a prosecution witness in a case pending against Marion Jones's former coach Trevor Graham.

Angel Guillermo Heredia, an admitted supplier of drugs to athletes, has shown the New York Times documents that implicate Greene and include email exchanges of doping regimes, cancelled cheques, telephone recordings and laboratory readings of blood and urine samples.

One document is a bank wire transfer from a Maurice Greene to a relative of Heredia's for $10,000 (£5,000).

Heredia told the newspaper that he received between $30,000 and $40,000 from Greene during 2003 and 2004, the year when he won Olympic bronze in Athens.

The federal inquiry into drug-trafficking by Balco, a Californian laboratory, has previously led to suspensions for former world 100m record holders Tim Montgomery and Justin Gatlin, and a six-month jail sentence for perjury for the triple Olympic gold medallist Marion Jones.

The exposure of Greene would be a major embarrassment for the IAAF, the sport's world governing body. They made him an IAAF ambassador after his retirement in 2005 and when he appeared at the world indoor championships in Valencia last month, he called for life bans for drug-takers.

Graham, who coached Greene, Montgomery, Gatlin and Jones at various times, is charged with three counts of making false statement.

He has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to appear in court next month.