Persistent cases of drug use by Chinese athletes hurt that country’s hopes of one day holding the Olympics, the head of the IOC said Wednesday.

In an unusually blunt assessment of a sensitive international sports issue, Juan Antonio Samaranch spoke of a possible bid by a Chinese city for the 2008 Summer Games and beyond.

“They have the right to pursue a bid,” he said. “But it is up to the IOC members what is acceptable. I think they would be in trouble.”

Asked to elaborate, the usually diplomatic president of the International Olympic Committee said: “I think it’s very clear. Many would not be in favor.”

Beijing lost a bitter fight to Sydney for the 2000 games amid questions about China’s human-rights policies. China has not said whether it would bid for 2008, with the IOC to choose the host city in 2001.

Samaranch, who in the past defended China’s anti-doping efforts, refrained from such remarks this time. His only praise was for FINA, the international swimming federation, which conducted the tests.

Samaranch spoke hours after four more Chinese swimmers tested positive for drugs, this time at the world championships in Perth, Australia.

Those test results - for triamterene, a diuretic that can be used to mask steroids and other performance enhancers - brought to 27 the number of Chinese swimmers who have failed drug tests since 1990.

Last week, 13 vials of human growth hormone were discovered in the luggage of a fifth Chinese swimmer as she tried to enter Australia. That swimmer and a coach were expelled and on Wednesday were banned by FINA - four years for the athlete and 15 years for the coach.

Samaranch said the IOC’s executive board would discuss the Chinese drug situation before next month’s Winter Games in Nagano, Japan. But it is clear the IOC is not ready to follow some critics who want China banned from international swimming until its drug record is clean.

“I don’t think exclusion is the right solution,” said Prince Alexander De Merode, an executive board member and chairman of the IOC’s medical commission. “You can punish athletes who are innocent.”

Anita DeFrantz, an IOC vice president and a former Olympic rower, estimated that 10 percent of Olympic-level athletes worldwide use banned drugs.