ALGIERS, Algeria _ Doping bans could be lengthened to four years, the vice president of the World Anti-Doping Agency said Tuesday.

WADA vice president Jean-Francois Lamour said sanctions could exceed two years if it is believed that an athlete organized his or her own doping or set up an entourage that helped to cheat.

"We are capable of going to a sanction of four years," Lamour said ahead of the All Africa Games. "This is a figure that has been mentioned and still needs to be ratified."

But he also said that doping authorities would seek to be more lenient where appropriate.

"I am opposed to a zero sanction, but we are capable of going below the floor that has been fixed in a case that shows there was no clear intention of doping," Lamour said.

Revising the anti-doping code will be discussed at a November 15-17 meeting in Madrid, Spain, where changes will be ratified, Lamour said.

"I think that we shall be much harder and stricter for sports people or an entourage that wants to cheat and that employs all means to cheat, but at the same time use greater flexibility in the application of the code," WADA vice president Jean-Francois Lamour said.

Lamour said WADA hopes to make changes that would allow a clearer understanding of the code by athletes and by the public.

He the revision of the code would also address the lengthy process of testing and fixing sanctions.

"It seems indispensable to us to shorten the delays between ... the analysis of the first and second sample, for example, so that we can move much quicker in establishing a sanction where it is deemed necessary," he said.

WADA has previously called for quicker sanctioning because of the slow progress of two of the major scandals of 2006 _ the positive test of Tour de France champion Floyd Landis and the investigation into Spain's Operation Puerto doping scandal.