Any future US boycott of the Olympics would hit the Games' bank balance as well as its prestige, officials said on Thursday.

US broadcaster NBC agreed last month to pay $820 million for the rights to the 2010 Winter Games and nearly $1.2 billion for the 2012 Summer Games.

Both contracts include a clause which provides for a discount if the US team does not compete.

The United States led a western boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games after the Soviet invasion of Aghanistan in the previous year. Four years later the Soviet Union retaliated by boycotting the Los Angeles Olympics.

On Wednesday, Vancouver was selected to stage the 2010 Winter Games, a boost to the broadcaster allowed to show live action in the lucrative US market. The venue for the 2012 Olympics will be chosen in 2005.

The International Olympic Committee would not say exactly how much of a discount NBC would get if the United States did not compete for any reason but observers said it was likely to run to millions of dollars.

"There is a whole section of the contract dealing with this," said finance commission chairman Richard Carrion.

"If there are no Games then there would be no rights fees payable. If the US team does not compete there is an 'abatement clause' which provides for a reduction." (Reporting by Ossian Shine, editing by John Mehaffey; reuters messaging ossian.shine.reuters.com@reuters.net. --44 207 542 7933)) 

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