The state prosecutor's office in Bonn said a DNA analysis agreed to by Ullrich in February had established a link between the 33-year-old and blood discovered in last year's police raids in the Spanish cities of Madrid and Zaragoza.

"We found nine bags of stored blood which we were able to compare with the DNA sample," said Investigating prosecutor Friedrich Apostel. "In this way we were able to confirm Ullrich's identity."

Barred from team and perhaps job

The former cycling champion was suspended from the T-Mobile team just before last year's Tour de France after being linked to the police inquiry.

Now his current employer, the Austrian cycling team Volksbank, has said that he will not be able to take up his post as advisor with them until he has been cleared of all allegations.

The 33-year-old, who retired from the sport at the end of February, has always protested his innocence, and the former Tour de France winner's lawyer immediately called into question the results of the DNA analysis.

In a statement on Ullrich's official website, Johann Schwenn said it was "perfectly possible" that the "apparent discovery" had been arrived at through manipulation given the irregularities of the Spanish investigation and at the International Cycling Union

Bags of blood

Anabolic steroids, equipment used for drug transfusions and more than 200 bags of blood were discovered in raids in Madrid and Zaragoza.

The judge leading the investigation in Spain decided to close the case after concluding that no crimes had been committed under Spanish law. But Ullrich remains under investigation in Germany for alleged fraud.

In recent years, professional cycling has been one of the sports hardest hit by doping scandals.