Italy has boosted its credentials as a world leader in the fight against doping by beefing up its drug-testing facilities in Rome in a big way.
The city's Acqua Acetosa lab was already Europe's top doping centre, carrying out around 10,000 urines tests alone a year, and second only in the world to the US lab in Los Angeles.
The size of the facility has almost been doubled - from 350 square metres to 600 - and it is now equipped to run 20% more tests.
"The opening of this new laboratory is a fundamental part of the difficult fight against doping," said Giovanni Petrucci, the head of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI), which oversees all sport in Italy.
"This battle is increasingly difficult, but we are not backing away from it. That's why we wanted to enlarge our facilities to be even more up to date and strengthen our position as international leaders in the field".
The presentation of the expanded lab comes after a series of high-profile drugs cases in Italian sport.
Former pole vault world champion Giuseppe Gibilisco and 2006 Giro D'Italia winner Ivan Basso were recently given maximum two-year bans for doping.
CONI's doping prosecutor has also asked the Italian Cycling Federation to ban sprinter Alessandro Petacchi for one year for testing 'not negative' for salbutamol, while 2007 Giro winner Danilo Di Luca has been summoned to face doping charges too.
Petrucci said these cases showed that Italy is doing its bit to stamp out drug use in sport.
He hinted that other countries were not being so rigorous.
"We are doing our best and I hope that other countries are doing the same," said Petrucci.
"But I wonder whether they are, because it seems that we are the only ones to have doping cases".
Italian swimming world champion Filippo Magnini called for "zero tolerance" against drugs cheats.
"Those who steal must pay," said the 25-year-old two-time and reigning 100 metres freestyle world champ.
"I'm happy when I see this type of initiative because I see too many suspect athletes around. I hope I'm wrong and that I'm competing against clean athletes".
Francesco Botré, the head of the lab which detected 6% of all international positive doping tests in 2006, said the facility will be further extended before the 2009 World Swimming Championships in Rome.
"Doping is not a shortcut, it is a diversion that does not let you turn back," said Botré.
"It is not just a health matter because, above all, doping is a question of fraud. Dopers are cheats. This has to be repeated ad infinitum".
The Acqua Acetosa lab was at the centre of a huge scandal in 1998, when it was closed after former AS Roma coach Zdenek Zeman said that the taking of performance-enhancing substances was widespread in professional soccer.
Former CONI President Mario Pescante resigned after admitting that the laboratory used extremely hit-and-miss methods in testing soccer players' urine samples.
There was even a criminal probe into whether the centre was involved in the cover-up of positive drug tests on soccer players and other athletes.
The charges were eventually dropped and the clinic reopened two years later.
Sports Minister Giovanna Melandri stressed that Italy has "come a long way" since then.
"Today Italy is doing its bit with its head held high," she said at the centre's inauguration.
"In just a few years we have climbed up the ranking and now we are at the cutting edge of this difficult fight.
"The opening of this new lab is an important event. The time has come to win this difficult battle".
