ATHENS (Reuters):

THE INTERNATIONAL Olympic Committee (IOC) will award the five Sydney 2000 Olympics medals returned by Marion Jones only to athletes who are clean, its president Jacques Rogge said yesterday.

"This is not going to be merely an automatic upgrade," Rogge told reporters in a teleconference. "Every potentially upgraded athlete will be scrutinised on her merit."

Rogge said the top-five finishers were automatically tested by the IOC, along with three random finishers, and their results were stored for eight years so they would be cleared before being awarded medals.

"We want to upgrade athletes that we know are absolutely clean," Rogge said.

Jones, the first woman to claim five medals at a single Olympics, won gold in the 100 metres, 200m and 4x400m relay in Sydney. She took bronze medals in the long jump and 4x100m relay.

Among those in the running for a gold medal is Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou who finished second to Jones in the 100m. Thanou was herself banned for two years after she failed to appear for a drugs test at the Athens 2004 Olympics.

Fight against doping

Rogge has put the fight against doping at the top of his agenda, considerably increasing tests over the past Olympics.

He said a further rise should be expected for the London 2012 Olympics with more than 5,000 tests compared to 4,500 for the Beijing Games next year.

"Zero tolerance is very important. Everyone knows that we mean business," Rogge said.

He said more nations should adopt the UNESCO convention that allows countries to adhere to the World Anti-Doping Agency's doping code.

"The naked truth today is that out of 190 countries only 70 have signed the UNESCO convention," he said, adding that he would address the problem at next week's world conference on doping in sport in Madrid.