Wide-ranging reforms, including closer control over elite track and field athletes' competitive schedules, were recommended by a special task force this week.

The 69-page report was commissioned after the performance of the US athletics team at last year's Beijing Olympics.

The team finished with seven gold medals, half the total won at each of the last two World Championships and one fewer than at the 2004 Athens Games.

The report said athletes should be discouraged from making energy-sapping trips to and from Europe after the US trials and from over-competing on the European circuit for the sole purpose of making money.

It also called for the introduction of a summer-long European training base and the recruitment of a high performance director at the national governing body USA Track & Field (USATF).

Athletes returning from a doping suspension should be required to provide under oath how they cheated, where they obtained drugs and who contributed to their cheating.

Suspended athletes and their coaches would also be required to go through a rehabilitation programme.

Any athlete who has been convicted of a doping violation and later pursues a coaching career would not be eligible for USATF coaching support and funds.

The report said the US Olympic trials should be shortened to five days from the current 10.

Poor mechanics, a lack of communication and uncertainity over relay running orders led to dropped batons in the sprint relays, the task force said in calling for a major revamp of the coaching staff selection process and distribution of duties.