Fencer Andrea Baldini, a leading Italian gold medal hope for the Beijing Olympics, has failed a doping test, the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) said yesterday.

The 22-year-old, who won the silver medal in the foil at the 2006 and 2007 world championships, tested positive for the diuretic furosemide during the European fencing championship in Kiev last month, a CONI spokesman said.

Baldini, ranked number one in the world, has been suspended from the team but could be restored for the Games should a second sample prove negative, the Italian Fencing Federation told Reuters.

"We heard last night that that was the result... we have now asked for the counter-analysis (B sample)," said federation president Giorgio Scarso.

He said the medication was used in hospitals in cases of cardiac arrest, although it is banned by World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) because it can be used as a masking agent for other drugs.

"I'm disconcerted, sad and it's an ugly thing for the world of fencing. If he did something wrong he has to be punished. If, however, the analysis was wrong then he should be reinstated," Scarso added.

"It's a very strong signal to our athletes to be extremely cautious when using any kind of medicine, even if it's widely available in hospitals and pharmacies."

The Federation would still be able to include him in the team in Beijing if the second test was negative, Scarso said.

A substitute fencer for the team had yet to be decided, Scarso added.

Italian media reported that CONI planned to give his place to Andrea Cassara, the European champion and bronze medallist at the Athens Olympics, who did not qualify because Baldini and Salvatore Sanzo ranked above him.

Italy has been hit by doping scandals in the run-up to the Games, with this week's announcement that women's world road race cycling champion Marta Bastianelli had failed a drugs test followed by Riccardo Ricco's confession of taking EPO after testing positive in July's Tour de France.