The governing body of world cycling said it had no evidence of doping against Lance Armstrong and was unable to express any judgment regarding recent doping allegations.

The UCI said it had not received any official information or documents from anti-doping authorities or the laboratory reportedly involved in the testing of urine samples from the 1999 Tour de France.

Allegations that EPO was found in Armstrong's 1999 urine samples were first reported by French sports daily L'Equipe in August.

Armstrong, who has won the Tour a record seven times, has angrily denied the charges and questioned the validity of testing samples frozen six years ago.

He has also raised questions about how those samples had since been handled, and how he could be expected to defend himself when the only confirming evidence no longer exists.

UCI said it was still gathering information and had asked the World Anti-Doping Agency and the French laboratory for more background.

Most importantly, it wanted to know who commissioned the research and who agreed to make it public.

"We have substantial concerns about the impact of this matter on the integrity of the overall drug testing regime of the Olympic movement, and in particular the questions it raises over the trustworthiness of some of the sports and political authorities active in the anti-doping fight," the UCI said.

UCI president Hein Verbruggen has demanded more severe sanctions for dopers and suggested Armstrong should face sanctions if doping was proved.

He also told Friday's Le Figaro that Armstrong had proposed before the Tour that all of his urine samples be kept for tests over the next 10 years.

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