At the IAAF's anti-doping symposium, athletes proposed extending bans from two to four years for a first offence, as well as having cheaters retroactively return prize money and possibly pay damages.

``We need to return to four-year bans for a first offence and lifetime for the second,'' Bahamian sprinter Debbie Ferguson said Monday. ``Two years is not enough of a deterrent. The potential to miss two world championships and an Olympics, of being four years older when they return to competitions are far more consequent.''

WADA is considering the move, and the International Association of Athletics Federations will discuss the issue at its congress in August.

``Whether to three or four years, I don't know,'' WADA executive committee member and IAAF vice-president Arne Ljungqvist said.

IAAF legal council Huw Roberts stressed the federation was considering four-year bans for special cases only.

``Not four-year bans across board, not for stimulants, but for aggravated cases,'' Roberts said.

Until 1997, the IAAF handed out four-year bans, but met with resistance from European countries as well as Japan and Brazil, Ljungqvist said.

``We faced repeated challenges across the world,'' Ljungqvist said. ``The ban was simply not accepted as in proportion with the offence. We ended up repeatedly in court and lost cases so we had to back down.''

But Ljungqvist was optimistic four-year bans will soon be reaccepted because of a change in attitude after several high-profile cases.

``In the BALCO affair people have admitted they have been systematically cheating the system. In Athens, people escaped and went to hospital to prevent any action against them. Other are using instruments to manipulate the system and produce false urine,'' Ljungqvist said. ``All this shows a need for a change and also certainly an acceptance, I would guess, by the legal community in certain situations.''

Athletes also called for financial sanctions.

``Currently, an athlete who dopes is like a thief, who only runs the risk of being told he needs to stop stealing once he's been caught,'' French hurdler Stephane Diagana said. ``In many cases they are not asked to return what they have won.''

Diagana said recourse should be available to athletes, teams, sponsors and clubs who lose money when someone cheats.

``Athletes should be able to sue other athletes who harm their career,'' Diagana said. ``There should be some kind of recourse, whether for financial loss or loss of ranking. There is a long list of those harmed by cheaters and they have no right to lay claims for this damage.''

Ljungqvist said the IAAF previously had such a provision, but not since adopting the WADA code.

``But I think this will become an item again, so there's an open door for financial sanctions,'' Ljungqvist said.

Athletes also want the whereabouts rule changed. Current rules require athletes to give anti-doping agencies a detailed break down of their whereabouts 24 hours a day, in blocks of three months.

Ferguson suggested athletes instead guarantee their whereabouts one hour a day, every day, three months in advance.

Currently, athletes are suspended if they miss three out-of-competition doping tests in five years. Ferguson suggested reducing that to 18 months or two years.

Athletes also called on shorter time between the testing of ``A'' and ``B'' samples to reduce the likelihood of cheaters getting off because of sample deterioration.