Nov. 2, 1999 10:38 AM Reuters

LAUSANNE, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Plans by Olympic chiefs for a worldwide anti-doping agency were given European Union backing on Tuesday.

European sports commissioner Viviane Reding and Finnish cultural minister Suvi Linden endorsed the plans after meeting International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Juan Antonio Samaranch at Olympic headquarters.

The scheme, which has come under fire from the United States, calls for the controversial IOC-led anti-doping agency to be operational by the end of the year.

Its first board of directors is to be appointed on November 10. The number of seats on the board has not yet been decided but is expected to be around 30, evenly split between sports organisations and governments.

The EU will have two seats while the IOC is seeking three.

Reding said the agency, to be set up as a Swiss foundation, will be provisionally based in Lausanne but, once a board of governors is formed, applications will be accepted to find a permanent home.

The U.S., along with the EU, would like to see the agency based outside Switzerland.

"The IOC has made the start of the agency possible and it is essential to work together with the IOC," Reding said. "But the IOC is not alone in this structure.

"The sports organisations have an important say and, of course, so will the rest of the world."

There is growing concern, however, that the United States may opt out of the agency.

On a recent visit to Europe, Barry McCaffrey, head of the White House drugs policy office, was highly critical of the IOC plan.

He called instead for a more independent drug-testing agency to fight the use of performance-enhancing drugs.

McCaffrey believes the IOC, by naming its board of directors for the new agency on November 10, is trying to drive its plan through before a 26-nation drug summit in Australia four days later.

Reding said: "Europe has made it very clear we don't want any part of the world left out, and we are very interested in having the U.S participate. The agency without the U.S. would not be complete."

Samaranch, who has been the target of much of the criticism in the wake of recent scandals that have sparked ongoing reforms within the Olympic movement, said he believed the United States would join.

"The U.S. I think will participate," said Samaranch. "We have reached an agreement with the EU countries and we will reach agreement with the U.S."