India's weightlifting team, currently serving a one-year ban for a series of doping violations, could be reinstated if it pays a 40,000 euros (C$57,000) fine.
India was banned by the International Weightlifting Federation until March 2007 after four of its weightlifters tested positive for banned substances within a few months.
But the IWF said Friday it had offered India the option of paying the fine to help cover the rising costs of testing and anti-doping programs.
The bans on entire federations ``punish younger athletes who were not involved in the doping cases,'' IWF spokeswoman Aniko Nemeth-Mora said Friday.
``India is not buying out its suspension with the fine,'' she said. ``The federation has changed its decision.''
Paying the fine would clear Indian lifters to compete at the Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, starting Dec. 1.
Indian lifters Edwin Raju and Tejinder Singh tested positive for the steroid stanozolol in March during the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia. The Indian Weightlifting Federation banned both athletes for life.
Two women lifters, Shailaja Pujari and B. Prameelavalli, also tested positive during out-of-competition tests ahead of the Commonwealth Games. They were suspended by India for two years.
