French Sports Minister Jean-Francois Lamour said yesterday he could not confirm allegations that seven-times Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong had used the blood-boosting drug EPO.

"I cannot confirm (this)," Lamour told RTL radio. "I know, thanks to the laboratory, that there were cases of EPO in 1999 because this laboratory has re-tested the samples but this is information that is totally unnamed."

Armstrong, who retired after winning this year's Tour, has denied ever taking performance-enhancing drugs.

French newspaper L'Equipe, saying it had access to laboratory documents, reported on Tuesday that six of Armstrong's urine samples collected on the 1999 Tour de France showed "indisputable" traces of EPO (erythropoietin).

The Chatenay-Malabry lab has said the samples they tested did not have names attached and they could not confirm if any of the samples were Armstrong's.

Asked if he doubted the American was guilty, Lamour replied: "I have my doubts. Why? Because I do not have the second part of the information, that is to say the identification. It seems only the journalist has that, for the moment."

L'Equipe published what it claimed to be a results sheet from the laboratory which appeared to show six figures revealing traces of EPO. The newspaper also published documents from the French cycling federation showing the same figures under Armstrong's name.

Armstrong recovered from testicular cancer to become the most successful rider in the Tour's history.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.