The 27-year-old is the first athlete caught under the International Olympic Committee's Beijing drug-testing programme, which began with the opening of the Olympic Village on July 27 and runs through the end of the Games on August 24.

 

The programme includes a record 4,500 doping controls, with athletes subject to surprise, out-of-competition tests at any time and any place.

 

Moreno tested positive for the banned blood boosting drug erythropoietin (EPO).

 

Under a new International Olympic Committee (IOC) rule, Moreno will be also barred from the 2012 London Olympics if she is banned for more than six months.

 

The normal ban for testing positive for EPO is two years.

 

Giselle Davies, the spokeswoman for the IOC, said: "The IOC means business in stamping out those who are not playing by the rules."

 

Spanish officials called on Moreno to cooperate with authorities and tell them who supplied her with the banned drug.

 

Sports Minister Jaime Lissavetzky said: "We are going to hunt down the shameless people who are causing harm to the health of our athletes.

 

"We will look to apply the maximum law to totally clamp down on drug-taking in sport.

 

"We will go to the courts, because we want to jail all the cheats."

 

Anti-doping legislation passed by Spain last year calls for prison sentences of six months to two years for anyone convicted of prescribing, dispensing or facilitating the use of banned substances among athletes.

 

Moreno could face fines of between $1,900 (£994) and $15,320 (£8,016).

 

Spanish cyclists have been under intense scrutiny since Operation Puerto, a blood doping investigation launched in Madrid in May 2006 that has implicated dozens of riders.

 

Two Spanish cyclists, Moises Duenas Nevado and Manuel Beltran, tested positive for EPO during this year's Tour de France.