ATHENS, Aug. 29 (Xinhuanet) -- The International Olympic Committee(IOC) president Jacques Rogge said here on Sunday that the number of doping cases from the 2004 Athens Olympics might rise in the coming months as a result of new tests.

    Rogge told reporters on the last day of the Athens Olympics that they will store the doping samples collected during the Games for future analysis.

    "We will take the samples from the games and put them in deep freeze. If new tests emerge we will re-test those samples. We can do that for up to eight years after the Games."

    "If the new tests reveal anything, the results will be changed," he added.

    So far a total of 22 athletes have been excluded from the Olympics for doping offenses.

    Rogge also said that the IOC will expand drug tests for the future Games. Nearly one in four athletes was tested in Athens, and that figure will vastly increase.

    Rogge meanwhile stressed that the anti-doping fight should be persistent because the cheats could not be fully eradicated from the sports.

    "My dream that will never be fulfilled is that we continue as wehave done with our extensive fight against doping and that we haveno positive tests," Rogge said.

    "But this is naivety. This will never occur. The Olympics has 10,500 athletes, it doesnot have 10,500 saints. There will always be cheats." he added.

    But he expressed his confidence in the current anti-doping program, which he said is deterring more athletes from cheating.

    "We had increased the period in which we can test the athletes,meaning from the opening of the Olympic Village until its closing.Each athlete remains under the authority of the IOC during that period even if his competition has finished.

    "We also conducted tests in and out of the competition. The topfour of each competition are automatically tested as well as a number of athletes drawn by random.

    "The third measure we have taken is to broaden the territory that we can test the athletes. Actually the territory in question now is the whole world. Before that we could only test the athletes who were at the Olympic Village and only at the time of the competition, now we are testing them wherever they are in the world.

    "Finally we have greatly improved the testing quality because we invested in new equipment. we have refined the testing and all of that reflects in the improvement of the fight against doping." Enditem