PARIS: The World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) revised list of banned substances was approved on Tuesday by the International Convention against Doping in Sport.

The new prohibited list includes a greater number of exogenous — or outwardly ingested — anabolic substances, such as methasterone and prostanozol. Tibolone was added to the list of anabolics and Adrenaline was clearly identified as a banned stimulant.

The list comes into force after a 45-day period.

Citing major breakthroughs like cycling's Festina scandal and Operation Puerto, WADA Director-General David Howman stressed how committed government action would be crucial in ensuring drug cheats wouldn't slip away.

Mr. Howman said he expects ``better testing, higher quality,'' and spoke of how a proposed future programme called ``Intelligent Testing'' could target athletes suspected of cheating.

Problems

However, WADA has problems — both technical and financial — to regulate.

Member states like Bolivia said smaller countries are handicapped because they are struggling to afford the prices set down by internationally accredited laboratories — whose fees are out of WADA's control.

Prices for testing samples in South American countries like Chile, for example, are now nearly four times more expensive than in previous university, or non-accredited, labs. A Spanish member, meanwhile, complained that his Madrid laboratory still did not have adequate equipment for carrying out testing into human growth hormone doping.

Mr. Howman hopes everyone has enough HGH testing kits ``by the middle of this year'' and wants improved research to extend the period whereby HGH abuse is detectable beyond its current 48-hour period.

He maintained that `A' and `B' sample-testing should continue and argued against scrapping `B' sample testing. He expressed belief that testing methods for the performance enhancer EPO are satisfactory and termed media reports that may suggest otherwise ``incorrect.''

Praise for FIFA

Praising FIFA for backing the fight against doping, Mr. Howman said: ``FIFA is well aboard with the code.''

There should be no respite ``to ensure the code applies to elite athletes,'' said Mr. Howman, who wants to see an increase in out-of-competition testing this year. — AP

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