DOPING SUMMIT WON'T MEET GOALS

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) The world doping summit fell short of two of
its prime goals today to finalize the creation of an international
anti-drug agency and impose uniform drug penalties in all sports.

With key governments insisting that the International Olympic Committee
stay out of the doping agency's leadership, the committee was attacked by
some of its own members on how to reform its scandal-ridden program of
picking Olympic host cities.

The open disputes left the IOC struggling to come to any concrete
resolutions by the end of the meeting Thursday.

In a new slap to the embattled International Olympic Committee, the United
States and the 15-nation European Union joined in demanding that the IOC
renounce control of the proposed agency.

"Any control by the IOC would obviate its independence and destroy its
credibility," said Dr. Donald Vereen, the deputy director of U.S. National
Drug Control Policy.

British Minister of Sport Tony Banks said the EU unanimously rejected the
IOC proposal that it lead the proposed agency. "The composition and
functions should be subject to urgent consultations," said Banks.

The call for talks could set the establishment of the agency back by as
much as five month, an EU official said. Even the IOC's top drug official
said there would be no final word on the doping agency out of this
meeting.

"Perhaps we can agree on the principle of an agency but at the end of the
meeting you will not have an agency decided in detail," IOC drug chief
Prince Alexandre de Merode said.

The goal of setting a mandatory minimum two-year ban for serious drug
offenses also faded under the pressure of major sports federations, who
argued such bans would inevitably be struck down by civil courts. It also
showed how the different sports organizations totally disagreed on the
issue.

Meanwhile, in a new blow to IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch,
rank-and-file members rejected plans to strip them of voting rights in the
selection of Olympic host cities.

"If we have some bad apples, they should be thrown out, but don't tell us
the whole general assembly is corrupt," Italian IOC member Mario Pescante
said.

Pescante said 42 IOC members had a breakfast meeting with IOC executive
board members to discuss the proposed new voting procedure for the 2006
Winter Games that would place the final decision with a 15-member panel
rather than the full committee.

An "overwhelming majority" of the members came out against the plan,
Pescante said.

"For the first time in the history of the Olympic movement, the voice of
the members is very, very loud," Pescante told The Associated Press.

FIFA, the world soccer federation, insisted it would never bow to a
two-year sanction. The IOC relented.

"My response to FIFA is 'yes,"' said Judge Keba Mbaye, who headed an IOC
group on the sanctions issue. He said FIFA would be allowed to apply
suspensions under two years.

The IOC had threatened last year to kick federations out the Olympics if
they refused to back the two-year ban. Cycling had also questioned the
wisdom of a two-year sanction.

Track chief Primo Nebiolo, representing the 28 Summer Olympic federations,
offered a compromise under which federations would be able to cite
"exceptional circumstances" in applying bans of less than two years.

Marc Hodler, leader of the seven winter sports federations, backed
Nebiolo's proposal.

The move to soften the two-year sanction upset leading athletes, including
former Olympic champions Johann Olav Koss and Sebastian Coe.

"We have to hold our nerve, we have to hold the line," said Coe, the
two-time Olympic 1,500-meter champion from Britain.

Germany's Roland Baar, a member of the IOC's athletes' committee, suggested
soccer should be kicked out of the Olympics if it can't accept a two-year
sanction.

"If soccer, or whoever, cannot accept the IOC rules, then they cannot be
part of the IOC. It's a very simple thing," Baar said.

Finger pointing and raw criticism continued to dominate the meeting as much
as calls for a unified stance on doping.

European delegates lashed out at the United States for making proposals for
thorough reform, saying it was seeking the high moral ground while it was
unable to control the doping issue at home.

"They should not take the others for being naive and small people," said
French Olympic Committee president Henri Serandour. "They should stop
giving us lessons. They want to appear whiter than white."

Coe also criticized the U.S. position.

"I say to those countries you can have a contribution to make to the
debate, but come to the table after you have first cleared your own
backyard," he said.

Coe cited the case of U.S. sprinter Dennis Mitchell. Coe noted that
Mitchell escaped a doping ban on grounds that his positive test for
testosterone was the result of having sex and drinking beer the night
before.

"This stretches confidence and credibility to the breaking point," Coe said.

Even Hein Verbruggen, head of the world cycling federation, joined the
criticism even though his sport was battered by doping scandals at the Tour
de France last July.

The IOC was scrambling to save its highly touted world conference from
failure on other fronts, seeking to revise some of its maligned proposals.

"They were projects, not decisions," said de Merode, adding compromises
would be drafted during Wednesday's session.

Hopes that the doping conference would restore some status to the IOC were
dashed almost as soon as the meeting opened. Some criticized the conference
for being nothing more than a chat room where little could be achieved.

"We are the biggest federation with 240 million members and we get three
minutes to talk," said FIFA medical chief Michel D'Hooghe. "This is
ridiculous."

The agency to coordinate random drug testing and other doping control
matters around the globe was slipping from the IOC's grasp.

The United States and the 15-nation European Union both objected to core
issues within the IOC proposals forcing de Merode to give up any hope of
finding enough compromise to set up the structure of the agency.

De Merode conceded the proposal on the doping of the agency was badly
drafted and had caused unnecessary discord. "There were small errors in the
document. It happens."