A central sports advisory body has urged the Indian government to set up an anti-doping agency after a series of recent doping incidents.

The All India Council of Sports (AICS), part of the Union sports ministry, has said a National anti-doping organisation would soon be formed to tackle the issue.

"The present system is not effective to curb doping," AICS president Vijay Kumar Malhotra told reporters after a meeting late on Thursday.

"If needed we will ask for the parliament's backing, such as an ordinance, to back this move," he said.

The Indian Olympic Association revealed on Tuesday that 22 athletes at India's national games in December, including 13 medal winners, failed dope tests.

The announcement is the latest in a series of positive dope tests reported among Indian athletes in recent months, which critics blame on apathy among sports officials.

Nine tested positive for the banned anabolic steroid nandrolone. Eight athletes and seven weightlifters were among those who returned positive tests.

Malhotra said the proposed anti-doping agency would make out-of-competition tests more effective.

The AICS would recommend that action should be taken against athletes by their employers and that their coaches should also be punished, he said.

Union sports minister Vikram Verma said on Thursday that he had directed national federations to be more strict to check the spread of doping.