Sports officials and government representatives unanimously approved today a new all-encompassing global Anti-Doping Code that will now be submitted to sports federations.
The central feature of the new Code is a mandatory two-year ban for doping offenders in all sports barring exceptional circumstances.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) wants to bring the code into operation in time for the 2004 Athens Olympics.
More than 1,000 representatives of governments and sporting federations at an anti-doping conference in the Danish capital agreed that bodies such as football's governing body FIFA, would formally sign up to the code after giving it further examination.
However, FIFA has argued that a mandatory two-year sanction would not stand up in court and could be unfair in some cases.
WADA agreed yesterday to set up a working party which would study the exact wording of the code, especially what exactly is defined by "exceptional circumstances".
International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge has warned that any sport which does not sign up to the Code will be barred from the Athens Olympics or 2006 Winter Games in Turin.
Rogge greeted the approval of the Code with a note of caution.
"This is a means to an end," said the Belgian surgeon. "The future will tell us if this wonderful day will also prove a pivotal day in the fight against drugs in sport."
WADA President Dick Pound was more positive, saying: "This reflects exactly the harmonised spirit in the fight against drugs in sport.
"I hope that before long every country in the world will have signed this declaration."
The purpose of the Code is to ensure that the battle against doping be "intensified, accelerated, harmonised and unified".
The Code defines a single list of prohibited drugs, ranging from steroids to stimulants to blood-boosting hormones.
Until now, individual sports federations have been allowed to set their own rules on doping.
PA