London, Aug 13 (IANS): Two-time Tour de France champion Chris Froome on Thursday said athletics should follow in the footsteps of cycling and invest a lot more money in anti-doping measures.

Cycling was riddled with doping scandals earlier but the sport has now been able to crawl out of the mess. But the ongoing doping allegations in athletics threaten to overshadow this month's World Championships in Beijing.

"From what I understand, the testing hasn't been at the level that it is in cycling," Froome was quoted as saying by bbc.com.

Froome said the International Cycling Union (UCI) spends about four times what the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) does on testing.

"It is going to have to invest a lot more heavily in anti-doping," he said.

"That would be a step in the right direction."

The governing body for athletics spends about 1.3 million pounds towards dope control while its cycling counterpart invests around six million pounds although the lion's share of the funds comes from the professional teams as a condition of their licences to race in UCI competitions.

"I believe some things have changed quite substantially (for cycling) since the dark ages of 10 to 15 years ago when the sport was really dirty," Froome said.

"The testing has really evolved and the UCI has now implemented 24-hour testing. I have every confidence that the system now really works."