The hi-tech anti-doping laboratory for the Winter Olympics is ready for next month's Games but it remains unclear whether athletes caught cheating could face jail sentences under Italian law.

While an 80-strong staff of Italian and foreign specialists are in place to begin testing around 100 urine or blood samples each day, Italy has refused to bring its doping laws into line with Olympic rules and respect a commitment made by organisers when the country was awarded the Winter Games.

"The Italian Parliament has been very determined, criminal sanctions will stay in place," Mario Pescante, Torino Games chief and Culture Ministry under-secretary told Reuters Television.

The government said in December it would not drop jail sentences for doping offences committed at the Games, which run from February 10-26, but sought to appease organisers by compromising on the list of drugs considered serious enough for criminal charges.

But Italy's Health Minister has sought to block that compromise move by saying the Italian list of banned drugs will not be diluted and his ministry will oversee all testing.

Francesco Storace has said he wants Health Ministry officials to oversee all testing - the International Olympic Committee has said it will handle it.

"It is a last-minute hitch. But we will find a solution," said Pescante, who is hoping that a meeting of ministers this week will find an answer to the wrangle.

While no athlete has ever been jailed under Italy's laws for doping offences, several have been handed suspended sentences.

For those charged with the task of testing the samples at the anti-doping centre in Turin, the dispute is a distraction from the main task of getting ready for a 24-hour a day operation, working to short deadlines.

"The laboratory and the people working at the laboratory are a technical body, so we don't have any responsibility in the selection of the athletes and we don't have any responsibility for the use that will be made on the basis of our results," Francesco Botre, head of the centre, told Reuters.

"We follow the requirements and the guidelines of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and if somebody that is authorised to sends us some samples, we analyse them," he said.

Botre is sceptical that Italy's laws actually have a major impact in the struggle against illegal performance-enhancing drugs.

"I don't think that penal law will stop doping in sport, it will have more of an impact on the smugglers and the illicit trade in drugs," he said.

"If you say to an athlete that they might face, say, three years jail in 10 years time or two years out of sport from now, they would be more worried about the latter outcome."

Although drugs are more commonly associated with the Summer Games, where there have been a series of high-profile cases, Botre says doping is a threat across all sports.

"Cheaters are everywhere and if you want to cheat it doesn't make a difference which sport you are in," he said.

At the Torino games, competition will face tests during competition and also surprise controls in training.

The anti-doping centre has 24 hours to report back on negative samples, 48 hours for positive results with an extra day given for cases involving specific drugs such as EPO.

The centre, based at a Torino hospital complex, began operations in August.