Lord Coe has been urged to sever his ties to sportswear giant Nike in order to rebuild trust and integrity in athletics.

Coe, who succeeded Lamine Diack as president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) in August, is a Nike brand ambassador but former Great Britain long-jumper Jade Johnson says that is a conflict of interests and wants the 59-year-old to quit the role as soon as possible.

Johnson feels that is a necessary step forward as athletics seeks to recover from a series of drug-related controversies, the latest of which came with the announcement last week that Diack was being investigated over an alleged payment of more than one million euros to cover up doping offences by Russian athletes.

Johnson told BBC Sport's Five Live: "Seb Coe's now the IAAF president, he's a nice guy, so hopefully he can live up to some of the things he's been saying.

"I think he can but I think he's going to have to do a few things a little bit differently. I think integrity on his part and transparency is going to be a big part to play.

"This is probably a bit controversial because I know this is something he's said he doesn't want to do... but I think that when you're in bed with a company like Nike, who for me don't have a problem sponsoring one of the most renowned cheats in our sport at the moment, Justin Gatlin, that to build trust and to show integrity and transparency that (Coe leaving his role as ambassador) is one of the first things he needs to do ASAP.

"I think one of the quotes he's said is that we have to make sure that clean athletes know that we are in their corner, and he said 'I can do everything I possibly can to make sure that we rebuild that trust'.

"And for us, as athletes, you have to not be involved with... (Nike). It is a conflict of interests, doing something like that will show everyone he is really honest and willing to stick by what he's saying."

Johnson also admitted surprise that Coe, who in August responded to allegations of widespread doping in athletics as "a declaration of war", did not know what was going on at the IAAF while Diack was in charge.

She said: "As the vice-president of the IAAF I think for eight years while Lamine Diack was in control I'm surprised that Seb didn't actually know what was going on.

"I would have thought 'what was his role as vice-president'?

"If he didn't know that any of this stuff was going on and he thinks that "this is a declaration of war", then first and foremost if you know what's going on in a sport as a vice-president then maybe you wouldn't have said something like that.

"And if he had said something like that because he absolutely didn't know anything was going on, then what is your role and what was your purpose as vice-president? I think that anyone who is involved as vice-president would want to know what was happening."

Coe was asked during an interview with BBC Sport Five Live's Sportsweek programme on Sunday if he regretted referring to Diack as the sport's ''spiritual'' leader when he succeeded him.

''I'm well aware I'm going to come in for criticism for those remarks,'' Coe said.

''It does presume I had a list of allegations in front of me at that moment, and I didn't.

''Should we, in hindsight, have known more? Yes, probably we should have done - that is why I have accelerated these reforms at breakneck pace this week.''

Johnson, who believes she was denied more medals during her career due to drugs cheats, says to help clean up athetics' image former Olympic champion Coe needs to lead by example.

"I think that now for him, and I know him and he's a great guy, I think he's actually really good," she said.

"Reputation is very important to him, in terms of what he's built as a legend of our sport. I think he's going to definitely want to go and do a really great job at cleaning it up but I think that transparency and clarity are extremely vital, and integrity, and I think he's going to have to lead by example in this."