Ed Warner: Paula Radcliffe and Colin Jackson understand record wipe

Paula Radcliffe and Colin Jackson could both lose world records under proposed rule changes

Outgoing UK Athletics chief Ed Warner has backed plans to erase world records set before 2005, adding that athletes affected understand "the greater good".

European Athletics wants historic records rewritten because of a lack of credibility following a doping scandal.

"If that's what it took for the good of the sport then that's the way I would have to go," said Warner.

GB's Paula Radcliffe, who would lose her 2003 marathon world record, previously dubbed the idea "cowardly".

• Read: Who could lose world records?

Britain's Colin Jackson would also lose his 1994 indoor 60m hurdles world record of 7.30 seconds.

Radcliffe said European Athletics' idea was "heavy handed", while Jackson said clean athletes "should not get caught up in this".

"They [Radcliffe and Jackson] love athletics and understand the greater good is what matters, but we've got to get to a better defined set of proposals, and we're not there yet," Warner told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Athletic's world governing body - the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) - will discuss the proposals at a meeting in August.

The proposals are a response to last year's McLaren report, which uncovered widespread doping in sport - and athletics in particular. Russian athletes are banned from international competition unless they can satisfy strict criteria to show they are clean.

Warner believes some of the records set prior to 2005 were "iniquitous", adding: "Today's athletes can't get close to them because they were drug-fuelled."

Ed Warner will leave UK Athletics after the World Championships, which he says will not be "100% clean"

One key proposal from European Athletics is that blood samples must be stored for 10 years after a record is set.

The IAAF has stored blood and urine samples only since 2005 and current records that do not meet the new criteria would remain on an "all-time list", but not be officially recognised as records.

Warner, who took charge of UKA in 2007, also warned this summer's World Championships in London would not be "100% clean", stating the battle against doping was "an arms race".

He will leave UKA after 11 years immediately after the World Championships and has already handed over chairman duties to Richard Bowker.