Prior to the Athens Olympic Games, anti-doping officials all over the world are kept busy trying to keep their sports delegations clean.

China's anti-doping efforts will be put to test at this summer's Games but China have been determined to make it a successful cause.

"We will try to make sure that no Chinese athlete tests positive at the Games," said Li Furong, deputy director of the State General Administration of Sport.

"Chinese athletes have had no positive test at major multi-sport international games since the Sydney Olympics," Li added. "We would also like to keep it clean at the Athens Games."

China, who dropped 27 athletes from its Sydney Olympics team to have a clean Olympic journey in 2000, has been in rigorous anti-doping campaign in recent years.

The sports powerhouse had conducted 1,366 urine tests and 79 blood tests up to May 10 this year, with four turning out positive, revealed Shi Kangcheng, director of the Administration Office of

Anti-Doping Commission, early this month.

In 2003, China had 18 doping cases over 10 events.

"To keep a clean record in Athens is one of the most important tasks of the year for us," said Shi. "So we set off working on a detailed prevention plan by the end of last year."

More out-of-competition tests have been and will be conducted among the 407 Athens-bound athletes among the 633-member delegation, the country's largest ever to an Olympics.

"Besides the frequent random tests, we also focus on promoting an anti-doping awareness among the athletes and coaches," Shi added.

Shi admitted that many of the athletes have yet to become fully aware of the harm of banned drugs and some would rather risk their health for good results.

"We opened anti-doping lectures for many sports teams during their winter training camps and such a lecture is scheduled for all the athletes in late July ahead of their Athens trip," he said.

For China's Asian neighbor Pakistan, anti-doping is also as crucial as gold medals at this summer's Games.

Last month, they banned three weightlifters and a top boxer after the four failed doping tests.

Nauman Karim, 21, who was declared Asia's best boxer earlier this year, tested positive after the South Asian Federation Games in Islamabad in April.

Pakistan banned Karim from competing for one year and disqualified him from the country's squad for the Athens Olympics.

Separately, weightlifters Alam Din Kakar, Hasan Aslam Khan and Akbar Ali tested positive for anabolic steroids in Bangkok in April and none of them was expected to compete in the Games.

British cycling world champion David Millar, having hoped to compete in the time-trial, the road race and the team pursuit, pulled out of the Athens Games after admitting taking erythropoietin (EPO) in 2001 and 2003.

The Australian Olympic Committee threw weightlifter Caroline Pileggi out of the Athens team after the athlete refused a drugs test, and former world champion track cyclist Jobie Dajka has his team place on hold pending two investigations.

"I think it's very important we don't select people who have breached any of our doping codes and we owe that to the clean athletes, who are the great majority of the team," AOC president John Coates said.

Coates said it needed to be kept in context with half a dozen athletes embroiled in doping scandals, from a total of 475 athletes in the Australian team bound for Greece.

Olympic powerhouse United States, too, are busy seeking out drug cheats.

With the discovery of the new designer steroid tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) in a Los Angeles laboratory late last year, supplement manufacturer Victor Conte and his BALCO firm allegedly distributed illegal performance enhancing drugs to athletes and laundering the proceeds.

Olympic five-gold winner Marion Jones is under a cloud of suspicion while 100m world record holder Tim Montgomery, two-time Olympian Chryste Gaines, Sydney 400m silver medalist Alvin Harrison, and 200m world indoor champion Michelle Collins are facing bans based on evidence collected in the BALCO case.

Middle distance runner Regina Jacobs has tested positive and is fighting her case.

To unite the anti-doping forces, tough new laws were set in place last March at a summit in Denmark and the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) code received strong backing from sports federations and governments around the world.

Among its measures was a mandatory two-year ban for serious doping offenses, barring "exceptional circumstances."

World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) head Dick Pound emphasized his view that doping is "the greatest danger facing sports today", and dwelt on the drug threat in his newly released book "Inside The

Olympics" during his visit to the University of Western Ontario in June.

WADA and the Athens organizers, however, are determined to carry on war on drugs at the Games.

WADA announced that they will not only conduct drug tests on athletes in Athens Olympic competition venues but also on those who prefer to train outside Athens during the Aug. 13-29 Games.

And in line with the world anti-doping code which was put in force on January 1 this year, sports federations must inform WADA where their athletes can be found.

Pound also warned athletes using Human Growth Hormone (HGH) to stay out of the Games.

HGH, which stimulates the growth of muscles and bones, is believed to be one of the most abused performance-enhancing drugs in sports.

WADA for almost a year has hinted that it has been close to developing a reliable test for HGH but with the Olympic one month away, has refused to disclose its hand, hoping to catch drug cheats by surprise.

Source: Xinhua