NEW YORK -- Baseball owners made some concessions on the amateur draft Thursday in their last full negotiating session before the union executive board meets to discuss a possible strike date.

The two sides also agreed that talks on steroid testing would be separated from the rest of the labor negotiations, potentially allowing for a speedier resolution to the issue.

Owners are trying to implement a worldwide draft to reduce the big signing bonuses given to Latin American players who are ineligible for the draft.

The current draft consists of 50 rounds, covering players from the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada. Amateur players from Latin American countries often get much bigger signing bonuses because they are able to negotiate with all 30 teams instead of just one club.

Management had originally proposed one 40-round draft covering all amateurs, but changed that to 38 rounds. The union has offered to implement two eight-round drafts -- one for players currently eligible and one for the new players.

"They made some modification on their position on the draft,'' union lawyer Michael Weiner said. "I would not characterize it as fundamental change.''

Management also dropped a proposal that would have made college juniors ineligible for the draft. The union was opposed to that change because juniors have more leverage than seniors in negotiations because they can go back to school.

Also, the owners withdrew a proposal that would have permitted a certain form of collusion.

Management had proposed that the teams should be allowed to submit all offers for free-agent contracts to the commissioner's office. Teams then could have checked to see what offers each player had received in order to make sure they didn't overspend on players.

Union head Don Fehr has said the players would not accept this plan under any circumstances.

"We withdrew our proposal on the information bank because this had been an issue Don identified as very troubling,'' management negotiator Rob Manfred said.

Earlier this month, owners altered their luxury-tax plan. Management had proposed to ease up to a 50-percent tax on payrolls over $98 million instead of starting at that level. Owners also agreed to cut the commissioner's discretionary fund from $100 million to $85 million.

The players have not made any counterproposals yet on the owners' new positions.

Owners want the luxury tax to slow the growth in player salaries, up from an average of $1.12 million in 1996 to $2.38 million this year. They also want to vastly increase revenue sharing, which would take away money from the high-revenue clubs, presumably forcing them to lower payrolls.

Players, fearful owners will change economic rules after the World Series, have begun to think about possible dates for a strike, which would be baseball's ninth work stoppage since 1972. August has been the time most mentioned as a strike date.

The union will hold an executive board meeting on July 8, the day before the All-Star Game.