Cooler heads have apparently prevailed and the Russian and Korean contingents will remain at the Winter Olympics for Sunday's closing ceremony.

While saying little publicly, the Russian Olympic Committee has backed away from its inflammatory rhetoric and informed International Olympic Committee officials they will keep their athletes in Salt Lake City.

"We are confident for the closing ceremony both delegations will be there and attend," IOC director general Francois Carrard said.

Carrard provided few details but said high-ranking IOC officials, including president Jacques Rogge, had met with Russian representatives throughout the day and agreed to consider a list of grievances.

But Carrard stressed that under no circumstances will the results of any Olympic events be changed.

ROC president Leonid Tyagachev charged officials in three sports - cross-country skiing, men's ice hockey and figure skating - with anti-Russia bias and threatened to pull the Russian delegation out of Salt Lake City if his committee's concerns were not addressed.

Rogge sent a letter to Russian president Vladimir Putin, assuring him the results of so-called judgment decisions in the three sports were "absolutely correct".

Putin expressed dissatisfaction with the way Russian athletes have been treated but intimated his country will not boycott the closing ceremony.

After Friday's events, Russia ranks fifth with 14 medals, well behind Germany and the United States.

Russian men have won just three medals in individual competition.

"I think the refereeing all in all was pretty fair and we should try not to look for some fault with the refereeing," said Russian goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin, whose ice hockey team was beaten 3-2 by the United States in last night's semi-finals.

The Korean delegation threatened similar action to protest the disqualification of speed skater Dong-Sung Kim, who had won the gold medal in the 1500-metre short-track event.

Instead, Korea filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

"We have no dispute with the IOC or the organisers of these Games," said Korean Olympic Committee president Dr Un Yong Kim, a member of the IOC.

"All the athletes have competed well and honourably, but the referee has failed them."