BIG GUNS FIRE IN DRUGS ROW

A TERSE letter from the White House to Australian ambassador Andrew
Peacock forced John Howard to intervene to cool tensions over an
attempt to ban the most powerful US anti-drugs official from Sydney
Olympic venues.

The US reacted angrily to a move by AOC president John Coates to
prevent General Barry McCaffrey, director of the White House's Office
of National Drug Control Policy, from holding a media conference at
Sydney Olympic Park.

In a letter to Mr Peacock obtained by The Australian the Office of
National Drug Control Policy said it was "dismayed" by the "unhelpful
and uncivil" actions of Mr Coates.

Mr Howard's office contacted an adviser to Olympics Minister Michael
Knight at the weekend, stressing that General McCaffrey should be
treated with due respect.

In a letter to General McCaffrey, Mr Coates also attacked the US
anti-doping programs. He revealed that he was told by USA Drug
Enforcement Agency officer Jim Tolliver in October 1998 that US
athletes using banned drugs undertook tests at private screening
centres to avoid returning positive results when officially tested.

General McCaffrey, who arrived in Sydney yesterday for the Howard
Government's international anti-doping conference, was given brief and
unguided access to the Olympic Stadium but had to give a media
conference at the nearby Aquatic Centre.

General McCaffrey asked a guide for a brief overview of the stadium
but was declined.