Organisers of the Sydney 2000 Olympics said yesterday they will increase their drug-testing budget following the furore over Chinese attempts to smuggle illegal growth hormones during the world swimming championships.

Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG) chief executive Sandy Hollway said the move would allow blood tests to be administered for human growth hormones, if a reliable method of testing is discovered.

SOCOG now only budgets for urine tests, which cannot detect growth hormones. They expect to do approximately 2,000 drug tests - at a cost of 800,000 Australian dollars - during the Games, involving all medallists and some random tests.