SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- U.S. drug czar Barry McCaffery has accepted an offer to discuss the International Olympic Committee's new anti-doping agency with IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch.
Samaranch invited McCaffery for talks after the White House's chief drug adviser said the new World AntiDoping Agency was too closely linked to the IOC. The agency is run by IOC vice president Dick Pound and is temporarily based in Lausanne, Switzerland, the headquarters of the IOC."We accept the invitation of president Samaranch to begin a dialogue," McCaffery said Tuesday. "We are cautiously optimistic that real progress can be achieved. We welcome the IOC's offer to commence this process and will begin the planning for these talks immediately."
The IOC insisted Monday that its new drug agency would operate independently and that the United States was misguided in fearing a conflict of interest.
"It looks to us as though it will be dominated by the IOC," McCaffrey said on the opening day of an international "Drugs in Sports" summit in Sydney. "That, to us, is unacceptable."
But IOC vice president Kevan Gosper defended the agency before delegates from 26 nations attending the three-day summit, saying, "Contrary to some public criticism, its structure ensures that it is truly independent."
Gosper told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio: "I think that the United States has not really kept fully in touch with developments that have taken place."
McCaffrey is promoting an independent drug agency that would conduct year-round, no-notice testing for athletes.