IOC presses countries to sign WADA code

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has threatened to ban athletes from competing at future Olympics if their governments don't sign the WADA anti-doping code within the next year.

IOC president Jacques Rogge also said countries which refused to comply with the code before next year's Turin Winter Olympics risked being overlooked for hosting major international events.

"The statutes and regulations of WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency), underwritten by the IOC and also the International and National Olympic Committees, call for the support of the government," Rogge said.

"Theoretically, if the government did not want to sign, then participation in major events or awarding major events by an International Federation to a particular country could be stopped."

Rogge, in Australia to address the Oceania National Olympic Committee (ONOC) general assembly, has long been a strong advocate for government support in the war against doping.

He has given Italian police permission to launch raids on the athletes' village in Turin for anyone suspected of dealing in drugs and warned they could be imprisoned if convicted.

The Belgian surgeon said the increased number of positive tests from last year's Athens Olympics was proof the IOC were starting to catch the cheats but the fight could never be won without government support.

"The sports movement is unable to do it alone," he said.

"We have no judicial powers. We cannot interrogate people and we cannot arrest people... we can never hope to have a doping-free sport because doping is to sport what criminality is to society."