SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Ticket troubles continue to plague the organizing committee for the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, this time over allowing only Visa credit cards to be used as payment.

Responding to public condemnation, an Australian consumer and competition regulator Wednesday scuttled plans to designate the longtime Olympic sponsor's product as the only acceptable form of payment for the next release of tickets.The chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, professor Allan Fels, issued Sydney organizers with the notice to revoke the plan, saying it was not consumer friendly.

The Sydney organizing committee's proposal to reject cash, checks, money orders and other credit cards was intended to streamline the distribution of the remaining 3.1 million tickets. Visa is an international-level Olympic sponsor.

But the plan met with opposition from consumer groups, who claimed it discriminated against Australians who didn't possess a Visa card.

The consumer commission "does not believe the convenience of the organization should override the ability of all Australians to take part," Fels said, calling for "a system which will be a more consumer-friendly outcome."

The controversy does not appear to affect the Salt Lake Organizing Committee's designation of Visa as the official credit card of the 2002 Winter Games, since organizers also intend to accept cash, checks and money orders.

"Our sponsorship is fine," said SLOC spokeswoman Caroline Shaw, joking that organizers have never been known to turn down cash. The agreement between the SLOC and Visa only bars other credit cards from being accepted for tickets and Olympic merchandise.

A Visa spokesman said the real issue is Internet ticket sales. "It's more of a logistical problem," said Joe Carberry, director of corporate relations for the credit card company. "You can't stuff $20 bills in your computer. You have to use credit cards."

SLOC, too, intends to focus on selling tickets through its Web site beginning in late summer. However, Salt Lake organizers have promised to come up with a way to accommodate ticket buyers who don't have access to the Internet.

The International Olympic Committee, which sells worldwide sponsorships for an estimated $55 million, labeled the controversy a government issue. "We have to make clear that Visa's exclusivity is not in question," IOC spokesman Franklin Servan-Schreiber said.

Exclusivity is why companies pay big bucks for the sponsorships, which last at least four years. Visa has long taken advantage of rival American Express in its Olympic advertising campaign, reminding viewers the Games don't accept other credit cards.

In Australia, organizers planned to put the next round of tickets on sale in mid-April via the Internet or the Olympic call center, with the only form of payment being a Visa card. Alternative methods of payment would be accepted at the following ticket release in June.

Dan Coyne, a spokesman for the consumer commission, said he was amazed the Visa-only option was ever considered.

"Here we have a pre-eminent event that is supposed to be open to everyone, and there's this proposal to blatantly restrict how you can buy tickets," he said. "It's totally outrageous.

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"There's already so much ill will and cynicism, and something like this will only reinforce that."

The consumer commission was drawn into the Olympic ticketing distribution planning last year when it was revealed that hundreds of thousands of tickets to popular events were secretly allocated to a premium ticket scheme.

Sydney organizers were forced to scrap the scheme, devised to raise revenue by offering top tickets at inflated prices to corporate organizations.

At that stage, the general public could only acquire seats by entering an oversubscribed Olympic ticket ballot.

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