BEIJING, Sept 28, 2007 (AFP) - China has staged a major turnaround in its fight against drugs in sport and stands as a model to the world, Dick Pound, chief of the World Anti-Doping Agency chief, said here Friday.

On his second visit to China as head of WADA, which leads the fight against sports doping, Pound said the agency was "impressed at the tremendous progress that has been made."

Pound came to Beijing, which stages the Olympics next August, a year ago urging China to step up the number of drug tests on its sportsmen and women during competition, and increase the number of out-of-competition tests.

But on Friday he said China had boosted all testing by 20 percent and that 70 percent of all tests were conducted out of competition.

China's sports ministry said that it tested 9,424 athlete samples in 2006 and planned 10,000 this year.

"All in all it's a very comprehensive and complete programme and I think it would be a very good model for other countries," Pound told a press conference here after talks with top Chinese sports officials.

That was not always the case. China saw a number of athletes banned from international competitions in the 1990s because of a doping problem which Pound likened to that of East Germany, whose 1970-80s Olympic successes were fuelled by performance-enhancing drugs.

But China cracked down on drug abuse and has managed to restore its international reputation.

"The central government doesn't want doped Chinese athletes. The provincial authorities do not want doped Chinese athletes. There may be some people out there doing it but that is why you have doping programmes and investigations," said Pound.

He said anti-doping facilities at the Beijing Games would be the best ever with a state-of-the-art testing laboratory run by top-quality staff.

"As for drug testing during the Games, you can assume it will be the best," he said.

"Whether the Games will be clean, I don't know. That depends on the cheats. But if they come and they are filled with drugs, we will find them."