In view of the future adoption of the new precise orbit determination (POD) standards for the TOPEX/Poseidon and Jason-1 satellites, we propose a method to evaluate terrestrial reference frames for POD. We applied this method to the ITRF2000 realization of the DORIS network using local geodetic ties, plate motion models, the recent DORIS IGN04D02 cumulative solution and DORIS weekly time-series of coordinates. We propose to adopt a selection of the ITRF2000 realization based on specific criteria that we define here, and to extend it with ground stations for which we propose new coordinates and velocities. Only 13 out of 131 stations were considered to be inappropriate for POD activities. The result is a robust and well-distributed DORIS core network of 118 stations (DPOD2000) suitable for POD during the 1993–2008 period considered here.