The International Association of Athletics Federations has cleared distance runner Sunita Rani of doping charges at the 2002 Busan Asian Games, an Indian athletics official said on Friday.

"The IAAF has written to us that she has been exonerated," Amateur Athletics Federation of India secretary Lalit Bhanot said in New Delhi.

The International Olympic Council had cleared Rani, who tested positive for a metabolite of the banned steroid nandrolone, after accepting that there had been discrepancies in the examination procedure.

Bhanot said the IAAF accepted an internal inquiry by AAFI, which cleared the athlete and contested the reliability of the tests done at the Games laboratory, pointing to huge fluctuations in the readings of the urine samples.

Rani, 23, was stripped of her 1,500 metres gold and 5,000 metres bronze won in Busan in October.

Bhanot said the athlete can expect to have her medals returned soon and a formal communication was expected from the Olympic Council of Asia.

"The IAAF has written to us that the case need not be pursued any further and the matter is closed," he said.

The OCA secretary-general Randhir Singh said the Asian body was expected to make a formal announcement next week after it receives comments from members of its games task force and the chief of the doping laboratory.

The Asian Games: The Full Coverage