OTTAWA, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- A week after Canadian cycling star Ryder Hesjedal admitted to taking performance enhancing-drugs more than 10 years ago, the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) announced here Tuesday that it has launched an anonymous Report Doping Hotline.

Paul Melia, CCES president, said that will help increase the national not-for-profit organization's focus on intelligence gathering and investigations "to stay ahead of sophisticated doping strategies."

"With increased intelligence we can test the right athlete, at the right place and at the right time," he said.

He explained that the toll-free telephone tip line (1-800-710-CCES) will allow athletes "to feel confident and comfortable sharing sensitive information" about incidents of doping.

The hotline was established following public-opinion research commissioned by the CCES that revealed Canadians and athletes want clean sport.

"Fairness, clean play and integrity need to become prerequisites in international competition," said Marcel Aubut, president of the Canadian Olympic Committee, which along with the Canadian government and the Canadian Paralympic Committee announced an 810,000 Canadian-dollar (about US$775,000) contribution to support the Canadian Anti-Doping Program that the CCES administers.

The additional funding will help the CCES test Canadian Olympic and Paralympic athletes during the four months leading up to the Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, said the centre in a news release.

It will also expand both the CCES's whereabouts program that targets athletes for "no-notice, out-of-competition testing" and its athlete biological passport program that runs a series of urine and blood tests searching for signs of doping.

"Our government is committed to eliminating doping in sport and ensuring Canadian athletes compete on a safe and fair field of play," said Canadian Minister of State for Sport Bal Gosal.

Just last week, the CCES issued a statement expressing disappointment that Hesjedal - the first Canadian to win one of cycling's Grand Tours (the 2012 Giro d'Italia) - waited over a decade to publicly disclose his past involvement in doping following accusations he did so in Danish rider Michael Rasmussen's recently released autobiography, Yellow Fever.

Sports organizations and governments are expected to adopt a new code of standards at the World Conference on Doping in Sport being held next week in Johannesburg, South Africa.

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