VANCOUVER, B.C. - Outgoing Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan is promising full accountability over funding to the Olympic athletes village - but not yet.

In an open letter, Sullivan said keeping details of negotiations between city officials and the project's partners confidential is the law. "Taxpayers are not well served by politicizing these sensitive discussions or conducting negotiations by headline," read the letter.

"As mayor, you have my word that the moment our legal team and negotiators signal that this information can legally be released, it will be without any delay."

The letter, to be circulated Wednesday, comes just before Vancouver's municipal elections in which the reported $100 million loan to prop up the company building the athletes village has become a surprise issue.

Sullivan is not running for office in this Saturday's vote.

His political heir, Peter Ladner, has also defended the need to keep council decisions around funding issues private until negotiations are complete or documents have been given final approval.

Ladner's copy of the confidential agreement made in October went missing and ended up on the desk of another city politician.

The details of the agreement were later leaked to the media, though city officials have not yet publicly confirmed the loan.

Ladner's opponent in the mayoral race, Vision Vancouver's Gregor Robinson, has promised that if elected he'll hold an open meeting to update the public on the status of funding for the village.

"There are too many questions and not enough answers. Vancouver taxpayers need to know just how much risk they are exposed to through this project, particularly in light of changing economic circumstances," he said in an earlier statement.

The athletes village for the 2010 Olympics is being constructed on one the remaining parcels of waterfront land in the city.

After the Games the units will be converted into private condominiums, with 20 per cent being made available as affordable housing.

Millennium, the company developing the site, bought the land in 2006 for $193 million.

The Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee is also contributing $30 million.

The area around it will also hold daycares, a community centre, school and heritage buildings, being paid for by the city out of its property endowment fund.

Altogether, the project is valued at around $1 billion dollars.

The private condos are about 60 per cent sold, which has raised questions over whether the remaining space will be able to be sold given the slump in Vancouver housing prices.

Millennium had informed city planners earlier this fall that costs on the project had risen about 6 per cent, but they were confident they would be able to cover the overruns.

The city has promised that the village will be delivered on time and even if Millennium can't deliver, planners have stressed taxpayers won't be on the hook.

That's because the deal stipulates that the city will be able to take over Millennium's assets and sell them to cover the costs.

The city's real estate director, Michael Flanagan, has said the city is also looking at ways to trim costs for the remaining construction on the village and are hopeful that the economic slowdown might bring some savings.

The city is scheduled to turn over the village to the Olympic organizing committee in November of 2009 and say it remains on schedule for completion.