SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- An arbitration panel of track and field's international governing body has upheld the two-year suspension of former Olympic 5,000-meter champion Dieter Baumann of Germany.

 The International Amateur Athletic Federation panel rejected Baumann's defense that someone spiked his toothpaste with a precursor for the anabolic steroid nandrolone.

 Baumann contended he was a target for tampering because of his past strong anti-doping remarks, which often were aimed at athletes from the former East Germany, according to Bret Walker, an Australian attorney and general counsel for the German federation.

 Baumann, who tested positive for nandrolone last Oct. 19 and Nov. 12, had appealed the suspension. To back up his defense, he presented a tube of toothpaste he said he was using at that time that was found to contain traces of a precursor to nandrolone.

 On his Web site, Baumann offered $130,000 to anyone who could provide information on who spiked his toothpaste.

 Baumann repeated his story in what was described as lengthy testimony at the IAAF's arbitration hearing Saturday in Sydney.

 "He protested he had nothing to do with the state of his toothpaste tube and he had not taken any other dope," Walker said. "But the arbitration panel nowhere says whether they believed him or whether they disbelieved him, and nowhere says that his evidence contradicted any other evidence."

 Baumann, 35, had hoped to be reinstated in time to compete in his fourth Olympics when the 5,000 preliminaries are held Sept. 27.

 Helmut Digel, head of the German Athletic Federation and an IAAF vice president, said the organization would accept the panel's ruling as final. However, Baumann's lawyer, Michael Lehner, said he may take the case to an IOC arbitration board in a last-ditch attempt to clear Baumann to run in Sydney.

 Under revised IAAF rules, Baumann is suspended for two years from the date of his hearing, meaning he will be eligible again on Sept. 16, 2002, according to IAAF spokesman Georgio Reineri.

 The German Athletic Federation reinstated Baumann on July 13. The federation's legal committee ruled that there was reasonable doubt as to whether Baumann either intentionally or accidentally ingested the banned substance. They also found irregularities in the transfer and storage of Baumann's urine samples.

 However, in a news release Monday (Sunday night EDT) announcing its decision, the IAAF panel concluded that the decision of the German federation was erroneous.

 Walker said he was most disturbed by the IAAF's refusal to comply with the German laws that were the basis of the federation's decision to clear Baumann.

 Since Baumann will be 37 by then, the IAAF ruling could effectively end his career. Baumann reportedly was at a training site on South Stradbroke Island, off the coast of south Queensland, and was unavailable for comment.

 The IAAF is under pressure to be tough on drugs, especially after stinging criticism for reducing high jump world record-holder Javier Sotomayor's cocaine suspension.

 The IAAF banned Sotomayor for two years, but reduced his suspension to one year earlier this month, citing "exceptional circumstances" and an exemplary 15-year career.

 Digel said at a packed news conference Monday that Baumann was at least as deserving as Sotomayor of special consideration.

 Baumann is married to former Austrian 1,500-meter runner Isabelle Baumann and has two children. He won the 5,000 at the Barcelona Games and was the silver medalist in that event at the 1988 Seoul Games. He finished fourth in the 5,000 four years ago in Atlanta.

 In 1997, Baumann became the first European to break 13 minutes in the 5,000.