DOPING United States feeling pressure to pay agency

MONTREAL (AP) -- The head of the World Anti-Doping Agency will travel to Washington next week to urge the United States to pay its debt to the organization.
Richard Pound, WADA president and a top International Olympic Committee official, will meet Nov. 13 with U.S. anti-drug chief John Walters to discuss the $800,000 owed by the United States.
The United States owes the largest amount among countries that pledged a total of $8.5 million for the WADA budget in 2002. The IOC is matching that amount, accounting for most of the money in the $18 million WADA budget.
So far, just over $10 million of the total has been paid.
Reminder
WADA communications director Farnaz Khadem will accompany Pound to Washington and said the purpose of the trip is to remind the U.S. government to include the money in its budget.
Director general Harri Syvasalmi said he will meet with Russia's sports minister next week to urge Moscow to pay the $504,978 it pledged. Italy also owes that amount, while a number of smaller countries in Europe, Africa and Central and South America also have yet to fulfill their pledges.
Britain, France and Germany all have paid their $504,978 obligation, and Japan paid its $1.5 million commitment, the largest of any country.
Project
The agency is working on a final draft of a world anti-doping code that would be the first set of universal doping rules for international sports. Among other things, it would establish a single list of banned substances, mandate rigorous out-of-competition testing and set standard penalties and suspensions for drug cheats, including two-year bans for serious offenses.
The code would cover Olympic sports. It is expected to be adopted at a world anti-doping conference in March in Copenhagen, Denmark, and would be in effect for the Athens Olympics in 2004.