The Italian cycling federation (FCI) on Friday gave Ivan Basso a two-year ban for his involvement in Operación Puerto, but deducted the time he has spent on the sidelines after first being identified as a suspect in the blood-doping scandal.

"I can't do anything other than accept the sentence," the 2006 Giro d'Italia champion was quoted as saying by Italian news agency ANSA after the hearing.

"I'm calm. I knew that it wasn't going to be easy and that's why I accept the sanctions. Now I will continue to train and I will be thinking ahead to the races in 2009."

Asked if he would appeal his punishment, he replied: "I don't know. That's something for my lawyer to decide. My concern is only to look to the future."

On his arrival at his disciplinary hearing in Rome, Basso, flanked by his lawyer Massimo Martelli, had pleaded for fair treatment.

"All I ask is that I am given a fair sentence," he was quoted as saying by Italian news agency ANSA. "It's true I lied for a year for fear of being found out, but that was a mistake. Now I will suffer the consequences of my errors, but I want to reiterate the fact that I have declared everything I know.

"I've lost everything: the races, my contracts. But it's only right because I made mistakes and I will accept the punishment. I hope that this whole episode is over soon so that I can go back to cycling as soon as possible."

That day will come on October 24, 2008. The 236 days Basso has spent on the sidelines after he was identified as a doping suspect were deducted from his two-year ban.

Italy's Olympic committee, which oversees all the activities of sports federations in the country, had recommended a 21-month ban.

Basso, who was among dozens of riders implicated in the Operación Puerto affair, denies ever having taken banned drugs or using tampered blood, but has admitted to having attempted to do so.

The scandal erupted before last year's Tour de France when Spanish police uncovered an alleged blood-doping network run by doctor Eufemiano Fuentes.

Police discovered bags of blood and doping products on a raid on Fuentes's laboratory in Madrid, along with codenames of cyclists and documents that suggested the doctor had been paid to manipulate and store blood.

The Tour was deprived of its top names such as Basso and Germany's Jan Ullrich.

This year organizers of the Tour, which starts next month, have been urging cycling authorities to act against implicated riders to try to avoid a repeat of last year's fiasco.

Basso parted company with the Discovery Channel team at the end of April after CONI recalled him to a second hearing to answer doping charges. He was initially acquitted of any involvement in the scandal due to what CONI described as insufficient evidence.

But they reopened their investigation after unearthing new evidence, believed to be blood samples and text messages between Basso and Fuentes.