Athletics chiefs will this weekend discuss ways to combat what they call "the conspiracy of cheating" uncovered by the emergence of a new designer steroid.
The fight to clean up the showcase Olympic sport will top the agenda of a Council meeting of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) in Berlin.
The sport's credibility is at stake after several athletes, including European 100 metres champion Dwain Chambers, tested positive for the previously undetectable steroid tetrahydrogestrinone, or THG.
"No one can deny that this THG scandal is something new, something terrible," said IAAF president Lamine Diack.
"It is a conspiracy of cheating which probably also involves organised crime. The IAAF must show strong leadership now and fight back with every available means to protect the integrity and perhaps the future of our sport.
The IAAF decided at its latest congress in August to accept the code of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) as the basis for its fight against doping.
Some member federations believe the IAAF should now reintroduce harsher penalties and revert to a minimum four-year ban for a major doping offence instead of the two-year suspension that the ruling body moved back to in 1997.
Diack has pointed out that IAAF had responded immediately to the THG scandal by asking a Paris laboratory to retest more than 400 samples from this year's Paris world championships.
He also said a possible four-year ban could be discussed at the next congress in Helsinki in 2005.
Other matters on the agenda in Berlin include the Jon Drummond incident at the world championships, when the American sprinter refused to leave the track after being disqualified for a false start, and the issue of athletes switching nationalities.
Council members will also consider a plan by organisers of the 2004 Athens Olympics to stage the shot put competition not in Athens but in the sleepy town of Olympia, the birthplace of the ancient Games.