BOSTON, Massachusetts (AFP) - Former baseball star Jose Canseco claims in his new book to have introduced New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez to a steroid dealer, according to a freelance writer's website.

Joe Lavin, based in nearby Cambridge, claimed Tuesday in an internet column to have bought a copy of the book due to be released next week, "Vindicated: Big Names, Big Liars and the Battle to Save Baseball", at a local bookstore.

Canseco, who has admitted taking steroids, wrote "Juiced" in 2005 and rocked Major League Baseball with accusations that retired star Mark McGwire and others had taken performance-enhancing drugs.

A probe for Major League Baseball by former US Senator George Mitchell found more than 80 players with links to steroids.

Lavin said Canseco makes steroid claims in the book about three other players - Rodriguez, Roger Clemens and Magglio Ordonez.

The report said Canseco claims to have introduced Rodriguez to a "known supplier of steroids" and that A-Rod was trying to sleep with Canseco's wife.

Ordonez and Canseco played together for the Chicago White Sox in 2001. The New York Times reported in January that Canseco offered not to mention Ordonez if he invested in a Canseco-backed project. Canseco denies that was the case, Lavin wrote.

Canseco, according to the website, also says that Clemens was not at a party at the Canseco house that was mentioned in the Mitchell Report and the star pitcher's hearing before Congress earlier this year.

Clemens has denied any wrongdoing even after his former trainer, Brian McNamee, named him as a steroid user in the Mitchell Report.

Clemens is being investigated for perjury for lying under oath when he told a Congressional hearing that he never used performance-enhancing drugs.

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