The Italian Cycling Federation (FCI) Friday banned Ivan Basso for two years for his affair in the Operation Puerto blood-doping scandal.

The 29-year-old Italian, one of the favorites for this year's Tour de France, was handed his punishment at a disciplinary hearing in the Italian capital.

The suspensions Basso had already served when he was identified as a doping suspect, amounting to 236 days in total, were deducted from the two years, meaning his ban will actually end on October 24, 2008.

"I can't do anything other than accept the sentence," Basso was quoted as saying by Italian news agency ANSA after the hearing.

"Now I will continue to train and I will be thinking ahead to the races in 2009."

Basso, who was among dozens of riders implicated in the Operation Puerto affair, denied ever having taken banned drugs or using tampered blood, but admitted to having attempted to do so.

The scandal erupted before last year's Tour De France when Spanish police uncovered an alleged blood doping network run by doctor Eufemiano Fuentes.

The Tour was deprived of its top names such as Basso and Germany's Jan Ullrich.

This year organizers of the Tour de France, which starts next month, have been urging cycling authorities to act against implicated riders to try to avoid a repeat of last year's fiasco.

(Xinhua News Agency June 16, 2007)