The agenda of the meeting, held in Lausanne, featured talks on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and FINA protocols on anti-doping programmes, as well as implementing specific testing plans in advance of this year’s Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Swimmers due to compete at Rio 2016 will be subjected to “efficient, coordinated and comprehensive testing” in the build-up to the event, promised FINA.

Other topics discussed included strategies on athlete biological passports and increasing communication with Member Federations, as well as athletes.

The meeting was attended by USADA chief executive Travis Tygart, science director Matthew Fedoruk and Jim Wood, a representative from USA Swimming.

FINA recently reaffirmed what it claims is its zero-tolerance policy towards anti-doping, insisting the body is 100 per cent committed to doing everything necessary to become the world’s cleanest sport.

Their stance followed concerns about the effectiveness of its current testing system, with John Leonard, executive director of the World Swimming Coaches Association, saying in a recent interview that the probability of clean swimming contests at Rio 2016 was “zero”.

His comments came following a turbulent year for sport after a WADA Independent Commission report alleged the presence of a state-supported doping scheme in Russia.

In the wake of the report, FINA announced that every sample collected during its 2015 World Aquatics Championships in Kazan will be removed from the Moscow laboratory at the centre of athletics' doping scandal and stored instead in the WADA-accredited laboratory in Barcelona.

Russia hosted the World Championships for the first time in 2015, during which 645 samples were collected for analysis by the FINA Doping Control Review Board, led by Professor Andrew Pipe, as part of the in-competition testing programme.

Swimming has had its fair share of doping issues and China's Sun Yang, an Olympic gold medallist in the 400 and 1,500 metres freestyle events at London 2012, was one of the most high-profile cases after he was suspended for three months in May 2014 for using the banned stimulant Trimetazidine.

Other Olympic and world champions have tested positive in the past two years, like South Korea's Olympic 400m freestyle champion Park Tae-Hwan and Russia's world breaststroke champion Yuliya Efimova.

The duo received reduced bans, which means they could be eligible to compete at Rio 2016.

“We are always happy and available to meet with our Member Federations and any National Anti-Doping Organisation in order to review all relevant details concerning the essential fight against cheating in our sport,” said FINA executive director Cornel Marculescu.

“USADA is a NADO with an impressive and exemplary record in the fight against doping.

"FINA has long been co-operating with USADA and look forward to continuing our strong collaboration.

“USA Swimming has a great and talented group of athletes and is therefore also an important FINA partner in this strategy.

“That is why we praise this kind of meetings and the positive results it brings in terms of transparency and mutual understanding.”