LONDON, Sept 12 - Two of Lance Armstrong's former team mates have admitted taking performance-enhancing drugs while preparing for the 1999 Tour de France, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.

Frankie Andreu, who as part of the U.S. Postal Service team helped seven-times champion Armstrong win the Tour de France in 1999 and 2000, said in an interview for the newspaper that he had used the banned blood-booster erythropoietin (EPO).

"I did make a couple of bad choices, but that was a long, long time ago," Andreu was quoted as saying in the newspaper.

"It's not something to be proud of. I did use EPO, but only for a couple of races. I tried my best never to use performance-enhancing drugs."

The other rider spoke on condition of anonymity because he was still involved in the sport, the newspaper said.

Both riders said they never saw Armstrong take any banned substances.

Johann Bruyneel, long time director of the team which was became known as Discovery Channel in 2004, declined to comment on the report.

Armstrong, who retired after his record seventh Tour win in July 2005, has been dogged by doping allegations but has always denied taking performance-enhancing drugs.

Andreu and his wife, Betsy, have testified under oath that Armstrong told a doctor in Indiana University hospital after cancer surgery in 1996 that he had used banned drugs including EPO.

The testimony was part of a civil suit Armstrong brought against SCA Insurance, who had refused to pay the Texan a $5million bonus following his 2004 Tour win.

In response to that allegation Armstrong issued a statement at the time saying: "The latest story, which alleges an admission of using performance-enhancing drugs in a hospital in 1996, is today as absurd and untrue as when it was first circulated years ago. It never happened."

Another of Armstrong's former team mates, Floyd Landis, faces being stripped of this year's Tour de France title after a positive test for testosterone during the race.

Landis denies taking banned drugs and has asked a U.S. Anti-Doping Agency review board to dismiss the charges against him, arguing that the tests conducted on his samples do not meet the World Anti-Doping Agency's criteria for a positive doping offence.