Dick Pound, an International Olympic Committee vice president who provisionally heads WADA, also said it hoped to move toward deciding on a permanent headquarters "within a year."

The WADA's first meeting, at IOC headquarters, produced few specific decisions. But its members, along with observers from the United States, Australia and Canada, said they were satisfied.

"It does mean business," Pound told reporters. "I would hope we could be out there within 90 days."

Delegates agreed to form a working group to propose a process for managing test results.

By the next WADA meeting March 22, hopefully "we will be able to approve a process for results management and it is our intention that if that process is adopted and approved, we will recommend it as applicable in Sydney this year," Pound said.

He added that the IOC would be prepared for WADA to manage testing there.

U.S. drug policy adviser Barry McCaffrey earlier said that such a role for WADA by Sydney would be "a minimal acceptable outcome."

WADA -- whose membership will be evenly divided between representatives from governments and the sports world -- also will consider a standard process for the accreditation of anti-doping laboratories and its own anti-doping code.

Pound acknowledged the agency needs more female members and more representatives from outside Europe. A group of governments on anti-doping measures formed in November in Sydney will meet in Montreal in February to discuss wider government representation.

Many people -- notably McCaffrey, who attended part of Thursday's meeting -- say WADA should move out of Lausanne and away from the IOC's management to be seen as truly independent.

The session agreed to "try and get something in place within a year from now" regarding a permanent site, Pound said. But the details of the procedure remained undecided.

"What we're going to do is to put together a request for proposals, a document that we can study and that we can circulate so that we can develop the best list of candidates," he said.

A number of cities have expressed interest in hosting WADA on a permanent basis.

Major decisions -- including the choice of a permanent headquarters -- will require a two-thirds majority rather than consensus, the agency decided Thursday.

Norwegian speed skater Johann Olav Koss said the agency's athletes saw the first moves as "an incredible step forward."

"That we will have a results management system in place before Sydney is very important," he said.

Athletes pushed for action on "passports" for out-of-competition testing.

"We want to be available 365 days a year for testing," Koss said.

They also want to see measures taken to ensure that sanctions for positive drug tests are handed out evenly, regardless of the sport involved.

"To date, there's been a disproportionate number of sanctions leveled at athletes," Pound said.

Ten new members joined the 12 appointed to WADA in November.

Representing Olympic associations were U.S. Olympic Committee president Bill Hybl; his British counterpart, Craig Reedie; Spain's Feliciano Mayoral, representing the Association of National Olympic Committees; and Eduardo-Henrique De Rose, president of the Pan American Sports Association's medical commission.

Also included were Portuguese sports minister Vasco Lynce de Faria and Council of Europe representatives Walter Schwimmer and Alain Garnier.

New sports federation representatives were: International Sailing Federation president Paul Henderson, Mustapha Larfaoui, the president of world swimming's governing body, FINA; and Tamas Ajan, general secretary of the International Weightlifting Federation.