Athletics: Disagreement over new anti-drug agency

New Zealand is in the middle of a row over the standards to apply to drug testing in sports.

A high-powered international summit on drugs in sport is debating a suitable policy in Sydney. The International Olympic Committee has set up the World Anti-doping Agency Wada to combat drug use.

However, a group of seven countries - New Zealand, Canada, Australia, Norway, the Netherlands, Britain and Sweden - are opposed to the way it is constituted.

Their stance is similar to that of the United States, which wants the agency to be independent of the IOC.

New Zealand is represented at the conference by Hillary Commission chief executive Peter Dale and commissioner David Howman.

Howman said from Sydney that the best formula for policing drug use in sport was to be discussed today.

New Zealand supports an independent body and suggests the principles being used by New Zealand, and the other countries who do their own checking, should be the way a system works.

"What we would like to see is Wada contracting out its detection work for us to do tests in New Zealand," he said.

New Zealand is one of the few countries in the world which has sports dope testing enshrined in legislation.

Leading the opposition to the IOC scheme is United States White House adviser on drugs General Barry McCaffrey, who believes there is a conflict of interest in the IOC's running an agency.

He wants to see a separate body to operate on six basic principles: it must be independent, accountable and effective. Athletes must be liable for no-notice testing 365 days a year. There should be no statute of limitations for doping offences. Samples should be preserved. Scientific research should be advanced and an ethic of clean competition should be promoted.

IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch has invited McCaffrey to IOC headquarters in Switzerland to discuss American participation in Wada.

In an effort to resolve their differences and present a united front in the battle against performance-enhancing drugs, the IOC said in a statement that Samaranch wanted to start discussions with McCaffrey as soon as possible.

- NZPA