FRESNO, Calif. -- Fresno State announced Tuesday it will cut four sports from its athletic program as part of a plan to get out of a seven-year operating deficit.

Athletic Director Scott Johnson said the men's soccer, men's indoor track and field, men's cross country and women's swim and dive teams would be discontinued.

Johnson also said a women's golf team would be added in 2004 "as part of gender equity considerations.''

The department is facing a $650,000 year-end loss for 2003, Johnson said. The cuts, he said, will save the department about $557,000.

Cuts were made last year by leaving open several positions, but not enough money was saved to keep the four sports programs intact.

"Even after last year's cuts, we had such a small margin of error,'' Johnson said. "Our ticket revenue was less than expected. We had insurance and security costs rise significantly and unexpectedly. We can no longer continue to play shell games with a tight budget ... We don't generate enough money to run the 20 sports programs we've been sponsoring.''

Johnson said the college will honor all scholarships for student athletes through 2003-2004. Students may then receive scholarships until their eligibility expires, so long as they satisfy NCAA and Western Athletic Conference eligibility requirements.

Coaching contracts will also remain intact.

California State University spokeswoman Clara Potes-Fellow said she knows of no other schools in the system cutting sports programs because of budget shortfalls.

Potes-Fellow said the system stands to lose $447 million as part of Gov. Gray Davis's proposed state budget cuts.

She said the system has proposed a plan to offset the cuts with $142 million from a 25 percent undergraduate tuition increase and a 20 percent increase for graduate students beginning in the fall of 2003.