By Tony Jimenez

VIRGINIA WATER, England, May 24 (Reuters) The European Tour and the other major international circuits are formulating an anti-doping policy which is planned to come into effect next year.

''There will be testing at some stage but we don't know when yet because there is an ongoing debate about what list of banned substances should be used,'' David Garland, the European Tour's director of operations, said today.

''There have been player education meetings with Dr Roger Hawkes, our chief medical officer, and our anti-doping consultant Michelle Verroken. They will be in attendance at various events to outline the tour's proposed policy and initiate the player education programme,'' he said.

The LPGA Tour left the game's other major tours lagging behind when it announced plans in November to start testing players for drugs in 2008.

Although golf appears to be unaffected by performance-enhancing drugs, there have been widespread calls for the governing bodies to put testing policies in place.

''I think it certainly can be (a problem) in the future and I think we should be proactive instead of reactive,'' world number one Tiger Woods said last year.

The Royal&Ancient, which governs golf in all countries except the US and Mexico, introduced drug-testing for the first time at last year's world amateur team championship in Cape Town.

REUTERS TB HT1655