Manolo Saiz, the team manager implicated in the Operación Puerto doping investigation, was told on Friday that his ProTour license remains valid for the time being at least.

The decision to allow Saiz to provisionally continue operating was taken by the Union Cycliste Internationale's licensing commission.

But in a statement the UCI made clear its displeasure at the lack of vital information from the Spanish authorities heading Operación Puerto to help it in its ruling on Saiz.

Operación Puerto is the wide-ranging police inquiry into an alleged blood doping network run by Madrid-based doctor Eufemiano Fuentes.

Saiz was questioned by police in Madrid at the end of May in connection with the affair after he was arrested with 60,000 euros and banned substances in his possession.

After his Spanish grilling Saiz resigned temporarily from his role as team manager at Liberty Seguros before the sponsor pulled out of the sport.

The team, whose star rider was Alexandre Vinokourov, was then renamed Astaná after the Kazakh ace stepped in with financial support from companies in the former Soviet republic.

But it is Saiz who now controls the show as he holds major shares in Active Bay, the company which owns the four-year license allowing Astaná to compete in the Pro Tour.

And it is that license which the UCI so reluctantly upheld on Friday.

But the sport's governors stressed that as with every team Saiz would have to get his 2007 budget officially approved before he could be assured of his stable's presence on the 2007 ProTour circuit.

In its statement the UCI said it was "deeply worried" about the Saiz situation and regretted "the circumstances which led the commission to take this decision".

It criticised "the lack of information on the part of the Spanish authorities and the extremely confusing overall context of Operación Puerto".

It added: "The UCI will take every measure that it thinks necessary to protect the interests of cycling, especially concerning disciplinary procedures against any implicated individuals."