World swimming body FINA yesterday promised to propose new rules to fight doping and said it would send a delegation to China next month to investigate cases that arose at the recent World Swimming Championships in Perth.

FINA said they had agreed four main steps in their quest to stamp out drug use. The first was for a FINA delegation to be sent to China to examine, jointly with the Chinese swimming association, the results of the investigations into the positive tests.

Chinese swimmers were accused of systematic doping at this month's world championships in Australia after breaststroke swimmer Yuan Yuan and her coach Zhou Zhewen were caught smuggling human growth hormones into Australia.

The calls for China to be expelled from the championships intensified when it was announced, during the competition, that four Chinese swimmers had failed dope tests. The swimmers had been tested some time before. In a statement, FINA said the "taskforce" announced in Perth would provide recommendations on items such as:

Identifying problems such as the inability to detect certain substances.

Transport and trafficking of banned substances.

Working with governments to eliminate doping.

FINA said that new rules to be proposed would include a vote to classify diuretics and similar substances that act as "masking agents" for anabolic steroids, along with steroids, as substances carrying a mandatory four-year ban for a first offence.

FINA have been heavily criticised by swimmers and the media for their slow response to the doping incidents in Perth.