Australia's sporting establishment, which has produced most of the country's Olympic medal hopes, was facing a police investigation into the use of performance-enhancing drugs yesterday. An Australian federal police spokesman said an assessment was underway into information it had received concerning the use of banned drugs at the Australian Institute of Sport's academies.

The news came as a scientist from the New South Wales Academy of Sport was charged with importing performance-enhancing anabolic steroids over the Internet.

The Australian Customs Service stated that John Pryor (30) would appear in court in Sydney on May 9th charged with two counts of importing a prohibited substance.

A customs spokesman confirmed the investigation involved a package containing the banned testosterone-based drug DHEA which was sent to the Narrabeen Academy near Sydney under the scientist's name.

The director general of the Department of Sport and Recreation, Brendan O'Reilly, confirmed a strength and speed specialist was being investigated for ordering prohibited substances over the Internet. A number of other officials and athletes were also under investigation. But John Drury, deputy chief executive of the Customs Service, said no big-name stars or Olympic athletes were involved.

Drury, speaking at the launch of a poster designed to help police, customs and Olympic security staff identify performance-enhancing drugs, said more than a thousand seizures of sports drugs had been made in the last year.

"I guess you've got to admit that there's both an increase in the drug importations but there's also an increase in our interceptions," he said. Customs Service figures reveal a steady increase in the seizures of performance-enhancing drugs in Australia over the last six years, with only 27 in 1994/95 and 968 in 1998/99.

But the New South Wales Police Commissioner Peter Ryan admitted police were powerless to stop banned drugs being ordered on the Internet.

DHEA is a performance-enhancing steroid banned in Australia and under Olympic rules but it is legally available in the US.

The maximum penalty for importing performance-enhancing drugs without an appropriate permit is $50,000 dollars. Australian Olympic Committee secretary general Craig McLatchey said this week a national taskforce was needed to catch sports drugs dealers.

An AOC report claims there has been a 25-fold increase in customs interceptions of illegally imported performance-enhancing drugs in the past four years.

Robert Ali, chairman of the National Expert Advisory Committee on Drugs, said recent studies had totally underestimated the scale of the problem.

Two high-profile Australian sports personalities have been implicated in drugs cases in the last weeks.

David Nilsson, Australia's bestknown baseball player, admitted he tested positive to a banned stimulant but was let off with only a month ban because he claimed he had been unaware the drug was on the banned list.

And two weeks, ago basketball star Annie La Fleur pleaded innocence after a parcel from the US containing DHEA was intercepted before it reached her home.

The 32-year-old veteran of 96 international matches said her husband, former player Andre La Fleur, had been asked by a friend to buy what he was told were "vitamins" in the US. Meanwhile, the European Union appealed to sports organisations yesterday to come up with ideas for fighting drugs in sport and promised to fund the best proposals.

The EU's executive commission said it had about three million euros (£2.76 million) available to support pilot projects such as information campaigns on the dangers of performance-enhancing drugs and conferences on harmonising the fight against doping.

"The fight against doping is a priority for the Prodi Commission," the commission, which is led by former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, said.

The commission said it would welcome ideas from organisations in EU member states and from European or world sports bodies recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). It said it would accept proposals until June 17th.

Viviane Reding, the EU commissioner responsible for sport, said last week the 15-nation European Union should be the leader in the battle to preserve sport's credibility and athletes' health.

Reding said that, in addition to funding pilot projects, the EU would give £1.5 million euros to the World Anti-Doping Agency to help finance its budget this year.

She said it would also invest 15 million euros in short-term anti-doping research.