White House drug czar Barry McCaffrey said on Wednesday the IOC's drug agency project is unacceptable, claiming it lacked transparency, accountability and independence, and maintained ``the Byzantine elements of the current IOC.''

It's not the first time McCaffrey and IOC have locked horns. At the antidrug summit in February, IOC officials responded to McCaffrey's criticism by telling him to solve serious doping problem in American sports before lecturing IOC.

Dick Pound, an IOC vice-president spearheading the anti-doping agency project, said he would write to McCaffrey to contest his latest remarks.

``I'm a little disappointed with his approach,'' Pound said in a telephone interview yesterday. ``It ignores a lot of good work that has been done leading to aninternational consensus for the agency. That's what we promised at the world conference and that's what we've delivered.''

Jacques Rogge, an IOC executive board official, accused McCaffrey of ignoring that the agency plans have been backed by European governments, the United Nations, World Health Organization and other bodies.

The drug agency is designed to coordinate drug testing around the world, including unannounced out-of-competition controls. The IOC, which is putting up 25 million dollars to get the agency started, has promised it will be established by the end of the year.

IOC director general Francois Carrard said a Swiss foundation, run by a board of directors consisting of government and sport officials, would be set up shortly to manage the agency.

Several contentious issues remain to be decided -- namely where the agency will be located and who will run it. Critics, like McCaffrey, say the agency should be completely independent of IOC.

Lausanne, Switzerland, where IOC is based, is oneof the possible sites being considered for the agency's headquarters. Other cities which have expressed interest include Vienna, Austria; Madrid, Spain; Lisbon, Portugal, and Stockholm, Sweden.

Among the agency's tasks will be to apply IOC's controversial new `Olympic Movement Anti-doping Code.' The 95-page document sets out guidelines on drug testing, sanctions, rules and procedures for all Olympic sports.

The code, approved by IOC at its session in Seoul in June, is scheduled to go into from effect January one. But it has come under attack from several leading Olympic officials.

John Coates, president of Australian Olympic Committee, recently sent a 12-page letter to IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch criticising the code as ``unworkable.'

Coates, a lawyer, found numerous holes in the document, including flaws in definitions of doping and trafficking and failure to fully address issue of out-of-competition testing.

Pound, who drafted the document along with fellow IOC vice-president Keba Mbayeof Senegal, said the code is a ``work in progress.''

Senior officials of two major olympic Sports, track and field and swimming, have expressed serious reservations about the code.

Gunnar Werner, honorary secretary of the International Swimming Federation, said he agreed with many of Coates' complaints.

``I hope (the document) will be delayed or reconsidered,'' he said. ``The main problem is it completely changes the whole system of sanctions. It conflicts with our rules. At the moment, we would not be able to apply it.''

Arne Ljungqvist, chairman of International Amateur Athletic Federation's medical commission, said his federation would also need to change its rules, noting that the next IAAF Congress won't be held until 2001.

The code lists a scale of sanctions for drug offenses, including ``intentional doping.'' For example, recommended penalties for a first offence for use of stimulants or other minor substances are: a warning, a ban from one or several competitions, a fine of up to 100,000dollars, and a suspension of one one to six months.

For intentional doping with steroids, the listed penalties are: life ban from participation in any sports event, fine of up to 1 million dollars, suspension of four years to life from all sports competition.

Werner and Ljungqvist questioned how sports officials will be able to prove intentional doping. According to the document, intentional doping can be proved ``by any means whatsoever, including presumption.''