Copenhagen - The re-allocation of some of Marion Jones' medals from the Sydney 2000 Olympics could start before the end of the year, a senior International Olympic Committee member said on Thursday.

IOC vice-president and juridical commission chairman Thomas Bach told the IOC Session that a further delay of relay team appeal rulings by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) will likely prompt the IOC to decide on a "case by case" basis.

Bach said CAS had postponed a ruling on the women's 4x400m and 4x100m relay races until December 18.

Jones was stripped of the 100m, 200m, 4x400m gold as well as 4x100m and long jump bronze medals after admitting in 2007 that she was using forbidden doping substances at the time of the Sydney Games, as part of the Balco lab scandal.

Her teammates in both relays are appealing before CAS not to be stripped of their medals as well, as requested by the IOC. Bach named the latest delay "frustrating" as the final allocation of all of Jones' medals will now come 10 years after the races.

The IOC not only faces the relay decision, and even more difficult appears a ruling in the 100m race.

Normally the second-placed athlete is bumped up, but in this case it is Greek Ekaterini Thanou who disgraced herself in a doping case at the 2004 Games from which she was kicked out by the IOC.

First IOC rulings may come when the executive board meets in early December, which could also apply to five athletes who were caught doping in retests of samples gathered at the Beijing 2008 Games.

The five athletes who tested positive for the latest generation of the blood booster EPO include 1,500m gold medallist Rashid Ramzi and cycling silver medallist Davide Rebellin of Italy, who face losing their medals. (dpa)