Rebuffed Italians to continue Valverde pursuit

ROME (Reuters) - Italian anti-doping authorities will continue to pursue Spanish cyclist Alejandro Valverde for possible offences even though a Madrid judge on Wednesday refused to hand over a blood sample they wanted to test.

The Italian Olympic Committee''s (CONI) anti-doping prosecutor''s office said it did not agree with the Spanish court''s grounds for refusing to pass on the sample but added the setback was not going to stop its investigation.

"The anti-doping prosecutor''s office is anyway in possession of elements of evidence independent from those requested which make it possible to take disciplinary proceedings against Alejandro Valverde Belmonte for violation of anti-doping sports regulations," read a statement on CONI''s website (www.coni.it).

The statement added that Valverde was still expected to appeared before CONI on Thursday and the 28-year-old, who denies any wrongdoing, could face further charges if he failed to do so.

Madrid''s Supreme Court rejected CONI''s request for the blood sample saying the Italian body did not have the required judicial mandate to investigate and it could not hand over evidence it was using in a separate case.

Italian media said samples Valverde gave at a doping control when last year''s Tour de France entered Italy for a stage had matched DNA from files of Spain''s Operation Puerto doping investigation.

The CONI statement said DNA evidence related to Operation Puerto had been collected directly by Italian criminal investigators and that, in Italy, it was possible to use material from criminal probes in sporting proceedings.

Caisse D''Epargne rider Valverde, who topped the world rankings last year, competed in the 2007 world championships despite the sport''s governing body trying to block his participation because he had been linked to the Puerto affair.

Spain launched Operation Puerto in 2006 after raids at addresses in Madrid and Zaragoza uncovered anabolic steroids, blood transfusion equipment and more than 200 code-named blood bags, some of which were linked to leading cyclists.

Police listed more than 50 riders implicated in the affair including former Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich, Tour of Spain winner Roberto Heras and Giro d''Italia winner Ivan Basso.

(Reporting by Paul Virgo in Rome and Mark Elkington and Ben Harding in Madrid, editing by Alison Wildey)