BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese company blamed for providing tainted dietary supplements that led to positive dope tests for 11 members of the Greek national weightlifting team has admitted to sending an apology letter to team officials, a Chinese newspaper reported.

On Monday, a Greek Weightlifting Federation official told Reuters that a Chinese company had sent an apology letter for mistakenly adding a number of banned toxic and cancer-causing substances to supplements it had provided the team for months.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, and the lawyer of suspended coach Christos Iacovou blamed the company's product for its athletes testing positive to banned substances.

An employee at Shanghai-based drug maker Auspure Biotechnology Co Ltd confirmed it had sent the letter, the Beijing News reported on Thursday.

Source: uk.reuters.com

UPDATE

However, doubts are still being expressed over the role of the Chinese company both in China and in Greece. The Chinese foreign ministry, according to Reuters, have casts doubts on Greek allegations and also the convoluted route by which the dietary supplements ended up in the hands of the Greek weightlifting team has raised many questions about the vailidity of the Greek coach's story.

According to reports in The NEA newspaper and Skai TV channel the dietary supplements had been ordered by a Greek businessman and gym owner, Panagiotis Katsellos and then sent from the Greek town of Larissa to the Greek team based in Athens. There the supplement were turned into capsules and given to the athletes.

However, questions remain over if the imported supplement had passed through customs and the how the highly toxic anabolic, methyltrienolone came to be part of the contents. In addition, According to NEA, the 11 weightlifters also tested positive for the banned opioid, buprenorphine, a drug used as an alternative to methadone in the treatment of heroin addiction.

The spreading scandal claimed another victim yesterday when Asterios Delayiannis, the vice president, of the Hellenic anti - doping organisation, ESKAN was forced to resign over his disclosure on the Greek NET TV channel that five other Greek athletes, in other sports had failed doping tests.

Eskan has also extended its investigations and checkes to include members of Greek football  teams.