According to sources close to the middle distance track star, El Guerrouj will bring the curtain down on his glittering career at a press conference later today.

The 31-year-old El Guerrouj pulled off a sensational 1,500-5,000-metre double at last year's Athens Olympics when he became the first man since Paavo Nurmi in 1924 to win both events at one Games.

El Guerrouj had failed in two previous heartbreaking Olympic bids for the 1,500m, winning silver in Sydney in 2000.

He won the 1,500m world title in 1997, 1999, 2001 and 2003. He was silver medallist in 1995 and also won the 5,000m silver medal in 2003. His three minute, 26.00 second run in 1998 still stands as the world 1,500m record.

He has said previously that he would be hanging up his spikes in 2006.

"I've got nothing to prove. Everything I do next year will be a bonus," he said last year after pulling out of the 2005 world championships in Helsinki.

In April when asked about retirement he said: "I don't know where I am in relation to returning to the track. Am I going to return to competition? Or will I retire? I don't know.

"I've achieved all my key sporting objectives, what is there left to prove?"

(ABC)