BEIJING, August 6, 2008 (AFP) - Australia's Channel Nine television network was banned Wednesday from official areas at the Beijing Olympics for a week after breaching rights regulations.

The broadcaster was banished from what is known as the Olympic Green Common Domain until Thursday next week for illegally filming inside Olympic venues, the Australian Associated Press reported.

'The IOC takes this as a serious breach of the news access rules,' the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said in a letter to Nine's Olympic director, Gary Fenton.

'The IOC therefore hereby informs you that the Nine Network crew will not be issued with Olympic Green Common Domain filming passes and will not be permitted to enter the Olympic Green Common Domain with equipment.

'This sanction is effective immediately and will end at 2400 hours on Wednesday 13 August.'

Rival Australian network Channel Seven, which has invested millions of dollars in its Beijing coverage, protested after learning that Nine filmed inside the aquatic centre as the Australian team prepared to train on Monday.

It filed an official complaint with the IOC after Australian swimming star Grant Hackett was met by Nine's cameras as he got off the team bus in an area open only to rights holders Seven and America's NBC.

Executive producer of Nine's Olympic coverage Rob Hurst told AAP the action did not mean the network had been banned from the Olympics altogether.

'The Olympic Green is designated to be the area outside the Olympic venue but inside the perimeter fences to those venues. In general it is the area where crowds gather to go in and out of the venues,' Hurst said.

Non-rights holders such as Nine can only gain access to the Olympic Green area through a daily ballot, which then allows them to film colour overlay and crowd movements in the area.

The move does not exclude Nine from attending daily news conferences with officials and athletes.