Dominguez denies charges

The 35-year-old, perhaps Spain's best-known athlete, was one of 14 people taken in last Thursday as part of Operation 'Greyhound', when the authorities listed her as a suspected supplier.

"I have never trafficked doping substances," Dominguez, speaking for the first time about the investigation, said.

"Up to now, no-one has told me the evidence they have against me, and more, after eight months of investigations the civil guard told me I that I was simply a witness in this procedure.

"So who decided, and why, that I pass from being a witness to being accused of a crime if there were no prohibited substances in my house? I only hope the judge analyses the case coldly and puts an end to all this.

"They aren't accusing me of doping but of something much more serious, of trafficking prohibited substances...of making a fortune at the expense of the health of my colleagues. I have my version of events but the first person to know them will be the judge."

Dominguez, who last month announced that she would not defend her world title in Daegu, South Korea, next year as she is pregnant for the first time, is expected to give her testimony to the investigating judge by video-conference over the coming days.

Earlier, the president of the Spanish Athletics federation ruled out resigning after his organisation had been thrown into the spotlight by the anti-doping probe.

Jose Maria Odriozola, who has led the RFEA since 1989, broke his four-day silence to speak about 'Greyhound', which forced him to temporarily suspend Dominguez as his vice-president on Friday.

"This is bad for Spanish athletics and bad for the image of Spanish sport," Odriozola told some 100 journalists, camera operators and photographers crammed into a room at the federation headquarters in Madrid.

"This is the greatest setback in all my years as president. I am not going to resign. I feel like a major victim because I think I have fulfilled all my obligations and have fought against doping for over 30 years."

Odriozola said he had acted a long time ago to remove Eufemiano Fuentes, a doctor questioned on Sunday who was also connected to the 2006 Operation Puerto that engulfed the world of cycling.

Odriozola said that all those accused who had links to the federation - three coaches, an agent and an athlete who came forward voluntarily - had been suspended pending the release of further information from the judge in charge of the operation.