Vancouver, British Columbia (AP) - World Anti-Doping Agency head Dick Pound called a letter from two sports leaders ''ill informed'' in which they asked WADA to suspend the French laboratory involved in Lance Armstrong's disputed drug tests.

The letter also asked for an investigation into who leaked information regarding documents leading to a report that Armstrong used banned substances during the 1999 Tour de France. The seven-time Tour de France winner has denied using banned drugs and said he is the victim of a "witch hunt."

Denis Oswald, president of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations, and Sergei Bubka, IOC athletes' commission chief, sent the letter to the WADA executive committee in Montreal, the French sports newspaper L'Equipe reported Wednesday.

"It's an unfortunate and ill-informed letter," said Pound, who attended a reception in his honor hosted by the United Nations Association of Canada. "It deserves a response and we hope they will modify their position as soon as they understand how far off base they are."

Pound questioned the motivation behind the letter.

"It's an attempt to draw attention away from whether or not the samples were positive," he said. "You're dealing with what is probably the leading lab in the world in this field who developed the original test" for EPO.

Oswald argued the Chatenay -Malabry laboratory violated "confidentiality regulations."

"That laboratory should have ensured the anonymity of the samples used in their research, or asked the athletes concerned for permission to perform (post) analyses," Oswald told L'Equipe. "It's not a question of protecting anyone, but of applying the rules."

Pound said the lab did nothing wrong.

"The source of that information that linked these particular athletes to these samples was the UCI (cycling's governing body), not the lab," he said. "The lab never knew who they were."

Hein Verbruggen, president of the UCI, has denied his organization supplied the information.

Last month, L'Equipe published evidence allegedly showing that six of Armstrong's frozen urine samples from 1999 came back positive for endurance-boosting EPO when they were retested last year.

Pound said raising questions about confidentiality ignores what he contends is the real issue -- why several riders tested positive.

"In the case of the riders who were identified, it wasn't one or two or three, it was six positive tests," he said. "The only question they are asking is how did this get out?"