Former World Cup champion Bode Miller has decided to leave the United States ski team and become an independent racer, officials have announced.

The maverick racer, who complained last season about restrictions imposed on him by the team, had a meeting with US Alpine director Jesse Hunt and men's head coach Phil McNichol this week.

"Bode decided to go independent but we will continue to support him as much as we can considering his new situation," the U.S. Ski Association marketing and communications director Tom Kelly told Reuters by email.

The decision means that Miller, who will go into the 2007-08 season needing just two World Cup wins to match Phil Mahre's US record of 27, will pay his own training and racing expenses on the five-month World Cup circuit, which traditionally begins at the end of October.

"We don't know yet how he will organise his training and racing programme and who will help him," added Kelly.

Miller won four world championship gold medals in 2003 and 2005 and was overall World Cup champion in 2005. But he struggled at the 2006 Winter Olympics and last season's world championships, failing to win a medal. Miller, who turns 30 in October, has been racing on the World Cup for a decade.

In the World Cup last season he had just four race wins and said he was frustrated by new U.S. federation rules that compelled him to stay in hotels with his team mates rather than in his own mobile home.

The US team, troubled by publicity surrounding Miller's late-night drinking habits at the Turin Olympics, also introduced a rule banning athletes and coaches from drinking alcohol together and at team functions.

American newspapers reported on Saturday that a cousin of Miller, Liko Kenney, had been shot dead near the family's home town of Franconia, New Hampshire, after being stopped by a traffic policeman, who was also killed.

Kelly confirmed the report, adding: "We don't know more details but apparently a policeman was also shot."

* / Reuters