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WASHINGTON -- Baseball owners got the best drug-testing plan they could negotiate without a work stoppage two years ago, according to commissioner Bud Selig.

"I didn't feel at that time that it was a strong enough policy, but it was the best we could do," Selig said during an interview broadcast Sunday on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos."

"Frankly, the industry couldn't take another strike or lockout, and therefore we moved ahead," Selig said. "We did have testing, so at least it was, what I regard, as a first step in an evolutionary change."

Baseball's program has been criticized by some because players are not tested as often and for as many substances as Olympic athletes, and the penalties for positive tests are not as harsh.

"What we need, in my opinion, is random testing year-round," Selig said. "We also need stiffer penalties."

The players' association has opposed Olympic-style drug-testing, but union head Donald Fehr said he has not ruled out making changes.

While some have said baseball has ignored steroid use because management thinks home runs raise attendance, Selig called the claim "outrageous."

"I would tell you that, as a group, the owners, I think, are as deeply troubled by the allegations of steroid use as any group possible, and there is nobody that will condone the use of steroids to jack up home run totals," he said.

Selig was interviewed by George Will, selected by the commissioner last year for his marketing task force, a fact disclosed during the broadcast.

Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press