China's Anti-doping Commission has issued its first list of athletes who failed drug tests, as it seeks to clean up its image before hosting the 2008 Olympic Games.

Some 16 athletes from nine sporting disciplines failed doping tests in 2003, while tests on four more this year had proved positive, the China Daily quoted the Chinese Olympic Committee's Anti-doping Commission as saying.

The newspaper, which did not list any of the athletes' names, said it was the commission's first such list.

Positive test results last year involved track and field athletes, weightlifters, canoeists, swimmers, wrestlers, cyclists and others, the paper said.

The offical Xinhua news agency said the list of the athletes included Zhang Shuai, the first player caught for doping in China's professional soccer league.

China, which has a history of drug scandals in sports, implemented its first anti-doping law in March to tighten controls over banned drugs and dole out criminal penalties to serious offenders.

The country was widely accused of systematic doping after seven of its swimmers tested positive for steroids at the 1994 Asian Games in Hiroshima.

But China has been on a clean-up campaign in recent years. It dropped 27 athletes from its Olympic squad before the 2000 Sydney Games due to suspicious blood tests.