Reuters - The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) suspended the accreditation of Beijing's National Anti-Doping laboratory on Thursday, weeks after launching a probe into drugs allegations in Chinese swimming.

The laboratory, suspended for a maximum of four months, has 21 days to appeal against the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

"The suspension, which takes effect immediately, prohibits the laboratory from carrying out any Wada-related anti-doping activities including all analyses of urine and blood samples," Wada said in a statement.

Wada said the laboratory could apply for reinstatement before the four months was up if it took remedial steps and tackled "non-conformities", without providing details.

China's national anti-doping agency said the laboratory had submitted "two false negative results" during blind tests conducted by Wada in 2015. "The laboratory will resume testing work after its changes have been reviewed by Wada," the agency said in a statement on its website.

State news agency Xinhua later quoted the laboratory as saying that the false negative results were caused by "technical errors" because it had yet to update testing methods to meet WADA's latest requirements.

The laboratory was also negligent in its analysis, it said. "At present, the laboratory is undergoing a complete review and improvement of its detection methods, in order to meet WADA's latest requirements," Xinhua quoted the lab as saying.