NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street super-swindler Bernard Madoff has not been diagnosed with cancer, the Federal Bureau of Prisons said yesterday, knocking down a tabloid report that Madoff told fellow prison inmates that he was dying.

The New York Post reported that Madoff, 71, who since June has been serving a 20-year sentence at a North Carolina federal prison, told inmates he does not have long to live. The paper cited unnamed prison sources.

Federal Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Traci Billingsley initially told Reuters the story was "full of inaccuracies." Billingsley later, in a written statement, said "Bernie Madoff is not terminally ill, and has not been diagnosed with cancer," although the bureau did not address every detail in the story. The Post story quoted one inmate at the Butner Medium Federal Correctional Institution as saying Madoff was taking "about 20 pills a day" and "not doing very well".

The newspaper said that earlier this year there had been speculation that Madoff was suffering from pancreatic cancer. Madoff lawyer Ira Sorkin declined to comment on his client's "physical or emotional condition."

Madoff pleaded guilty in March to orchestrating a worldwide $65 billion Ponzi scheme that claimed thousands of victims over the course of 20 years. He was sentenced to 150 years, which has fueled speculation that any talk of terminal illness would be a ploy for leniency.