Former World Anti-Doping Agency chief Dick Pound has been nominated for president of the highest court in sports.

Pound is one of two candidates put forward by the International Olympic Committee to be the next head of the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The other candidate is Geneva-based lawyer Robert Briner.

"It's up to CAS to get on with the elections, but we do respect their autonomy so it's all in their hands in terms of moving things forward," IOC spokeswoman Emmanuelle Moreau said on Friday.

The IOC is the only body that can nominate candidates for the CAS presidency, but the tribunal's 20-member board makes the final decision. The vote could come in April.

Pound, a Canadian lawyer and senior IOC member, served as head of WADA from 1999 to 2007. Australia's John Fahey has replaced Pound as the new WADA president.

If elected, Pound would be in charge of overseeing the work of the sports world's top appeals body. He would also control the appointment of arbitrators who rule on disputes.

CAS has nearly 300 arbitrators from 87 countries and handles about 200 cases a year.

The presidency of CAS' governing board has been vacant since Senegalese judge Keba Mbaye died in January 2007, a few months into his latest four-year term. Mbaye, 82, had been the body's only president since its creation in 1984.

Matthieu Reeb, who runs the court's day-to-day operations, said he had not yet received any official nominations for the presidency and no date for elections has been set.

CAS's governing board will convene next week to decide on the agenda for an April 3 meeting in Monaco, he said.

"I cannot exclude that we will have elections in April," Reeb said.

He added that under CAS rules interim president Mino Auletta could continue in his role until the end of 2010.

Pound, in a telephone interview with The Associated Press, said it was important the tribunal understands the needs of sport "so that CAS does not get lost in the clutter of general arbitration bodies dealing with commercial and other disputes."

Briner could not be reached for comment on Friday.

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