SAINT-DENIS, France -- The head of the World Anti-Doping Agency urged international track officials to investigate sprinter Jerome Young's alleged positive steroid test.

Dick Pound said the American's reported admission of a failed test in 1999 bolsters the case for stripping the U.S. 1,600-meter relay team of its 2000 Olympic gold medal.

Young, the 400-meter gold medal winner at the World Championships this week, denied ever committing a doping offense. However, he was quoted in the Los Angeles Times on Friday as acknowledging that he tested positive but competed in the Sydney Games after being cleared on appeal by U.S. track authorities.

"Yes, it's something that happened," Young was quoted as saying in the Times. "I've moved on. It's something I don't want to talk about. It's something that's a closed door."

Young contested the interpretation of his remarks in a statement issued Friday.

"Since I won the 400 meters on Tuesday night, some journalists have asked me about the impact of recent news stories on my outlook at the World Championships," he said. "I have responded by saying that the stories have happened, I've put them behind me and moved on.

"I wish to make clear that I have never committed a doping offense."

Young's statement stopped short of denial that he was the previously unidentified athlete who was exonerated of a drug offense and went on to win a gold medal in Sydney.

Interviewed Friday by The Associated Press at a practice track in Paris, Young declined to address the accusations.

"I can't talk about that, I don't want to comment on that," he said. "I'm just here to race. ... I just want to keep focusing on my race."

Young is to run in the 1,600-meter relay at the world meet this weekend.

He ran the first leg in the opening round and semifinal heats of the relay in Sydney, but didn't run in the final. The U.S. team, anchored by Michael Johnson, finished ahead of the Jamaicans and Russians. All six members of the U.S. relay squad collected golds.

Pound insisted there is enough information to reopen the case and strip the team of the medals.

"Now that the name is out and you have an acknowledgment of the athlete involved, I think that's everything you need," he told the AP by phone from Montreal. "The IAAF is in a position to act. It has both the means and the duty to act."

But Arne Ljungqvist, vice president and anti-doping chief of the International Association of Athletics Federations, said the world body can't take action without a "clear and verifiable" admission from the athlete.

Ljungqvist said the IAAF doesn't require an admission that the athlete took drugs, only that he was the athlete at the center of the case.

"A positive drug test does not immediately mean a doping offense," he said. "This needs to be evaluated. The exoneration by USATF may have been right."

The U.S. federation refused to provide the information to the IAAF, citing confidentiality rules. The dispute went to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which ruled in January that USATF did not have to disclose details of that case and 12 other positive tests from 1996-2000.

IOC president Jacques Rogge sent a letter to the IAAF and the U.S. Olympic Committee on Thursday "strongly urging them to pursue the matter." He also asked Pound's agency to assist the inquiry "by using all means and powers at its disposal."

The IOC said Friday it couldn't comment on Young's reported comments.

"But this development highlights yet again that what is needed, and what the IOC has long been pursuing, is full disclosure of the case," IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said.

The USOC said Thursday it considered the case closed by the arbitration decision and any attempt to reopen the matter is "impractical and does nothing to further the international anti-doping effort."

Pound called the USOC's position an "ostrichlike approach" and said he would approach the IAAF, USOC and USATF to investigate fully.