The U.S. Olympic Committee is looking into reports that Bibles will be prohibited inside the Olympic Village in Beijing next year.

A story posted on the Catholic News Agency website cited a list of prohibited items that was said to include Bibles.

That story said the Italian daily La Gazzetta dello Sport reported that organizers cited "security reasons" for prohibiting athletes from carrying any kind of religious symbol at Olympic facilities. Those reports and others were producing active blog discussions on several websites.

But U.S. Olympic Committee spokesman Darryl Seibel said the federation had reviewed all the information the Beijing Olympic organizing committee had provided about what is permissible in the Olympic Village and found nothing to indicate the Bible or any other religious material would be prohibited.

"We have contacted BOCOG [the Beijing Olympic organizing committee] to confirm this is the case and look forward to hearing back quite soon," Seibel said Wednesday from U.S. Olympic Committee offices in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Many observers are interested in seeing how China will handle issues like freedom of the press and freedom of religion over the 16 days of the Summer Olympics next August.

"We fully expect that the standards established by the IOC [International Olympic Committee] for previous Games will be in effect for these Games," Seibel said.

Those standards include providing a place in the Olympic Village for athletes to worship.