GENEVA (Reuters):

THE INTERNATIONAL Cycling Union (UCI)has asked all ProTour cyclists to sign an anti-doping charter including promises to submit DNA samples to Spanish authorities investigating the Puerto affair.

The document, handed out by the UCI at a media conference in Geneva yesterday, will also ask cyclists to pledge a year's salary in the event that they test positive for a banned substance in the future.

The letter, which begins with a declaration that the rider has not been involved in any past doping affair, will be sent to cyclists for signing by July 7.

Describing the document as "the riders' commitment to a new cycling", UCI president Pat McQuaid acknowledged that no one could be forced to sign.

However, a full list of those who had signed would be made publicly available on the organisation's website, he added.

"It is not a legal letter at all from that point of view we don't have the possibility to sanction the riders, but we have asked the team leaders to take any non-signings into account when deciding whether their riders start (a race) or not," McQuaid said.