IAAF chiefs are meeting to decide on ban for Russia

World athletics chiefs are meeting to decide whether to suspend Russia over accusations of "state-sponsored" doping, a move that could eventually lead to Russian athletes being excluded from the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Sebastian Coe, the recently-elected president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), will not be at the organisation's headquarters in Monaco but will preside from London over a conference call of the body's 27 elected members on Friday evening.

Russian Mikhail Butov, an IAAF council member and secretary general of the Russian Athletics Federation (ARAF) will "present the ARAF position" before being "excluded from the remainder of the debate and voting", the IAAF said in a statement.

A simple majority is all that will be needed to confirm a suspension for Russia who were accused of widespread doping by an independent commission set up by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in a report which has shaken track and field, one of the Olympic Games' flagship sports.

"We will do whatever the IAAF tells us," Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said, quoted by the Ria Novosti news agency.

"But we don't want to scrub Russian athletics off the world map and we will not accept such a decision.

"Sebastian Coe and (IAAF vice-president) Sergey Bubka understand sport from the inside and I hope they will come to a fair decision.

"We can miss one or two competitions, but it's really stupid should honest athletes miss the Olympics or world championships."

Mutko had earlier said that Moscow was ready to reform or "create a new anti-doping organisation" were the IAAF or WADA to demand it.

In another peace offering, Mutko also broached the idea of appointing a "foreign specialist" as head of the Moscow doping laboratory, a move towards openness never before seen in Russian sport.

The 335-page WADA report blasted Russian officials for blackmailing athletes to cover up positive tests as well as destroying test samples.

The IAAF is under huge pressure to take strong action just nine months out from the Olympics.

The fallout from the WADA report's damning conclusions reached as far up as Russian President Vladimir Putin who ordered officials to launch their own internal investigation and cooperate with international anti-doping authorities.

"We must do everything in Russia to rid ourselves of this problem," said Putin.

"This problem does not exist only in Russia, but if our foreign colleagues have questions, we must answer them."

Should an Olympic athletics ban be eventually imposed, Mutko rejected the notion of a Russia boycott of Rio 2016.