Athletics: The president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) wants athletes who test positive for substances such as steroids to be banned for four years.
"We want to move towards four-year bans," Lamine Diack told reporters in Gothenburg, where the European athletics championships starts tomorrow.
"We cannot accept any doubts about the performances of our athletes."
Diack's proposal came a few days after Olympic and world 100 metres champion Justin Gatlin said he had tested positive for testosterone, dealing a serious blow to the showcase Olympic sport.
Under the current rules of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), athletes face a two-year suspension for a first doping offence and a life ban in case of a second.
The four-year bans would apply for positive tests for only some performance-enhancing drugs including steroids and erythropoietin (EPO), Diack said.
The four-year ban proposal would be on the agenda of the ruling body's next congress in August 2007 in Osaka, Japan, he added.
Diack said he would try to convince other federations to follow suit and hoped WADA would promote four-year bans at its next congress scheduled for November 2007.
The IAAF used to inflict four-year bans for steroid offences but dropped the sanction to two years in 1997 after courts in some countries refused to uphold the longer penalty.