The World Anti-Doping Agency ruled Sunday that the British Olympic Association's lifetime ban for drug offenders violates the anti-doping code, which sets out rules and sanctions for all Olympic bodies.

Britain is the only country with a lifetime drug suspension, and the BOA was the only national Olympic committee found in noncompliance with the code by WADA's foundation board in Montreal.

WADA President John Fahey said he was "very disappointed that it's come to this." The BOA is expected to defend its rule at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Compliance with the World Anti-Doping Code is mandatory under International Olympic Committee rules. The ultimate sanction for failing to comply is exclusion from the Olympics.

But the IOC noted that Britain's national anti-doping agency, UK Anti-Doping, is "fully compliant" with the code and said there was no risk to athletes from the 2012 host nation.

"The BOA has only been deemed non-compliant on a technicality rather than any unwillingness of the BOA to fight doping," IOC spokeswoman Emmanuelle Moreau said in a statement to The Associated Press. "We are confident that the BOA and UKAD will do their utmost to ensure clean British athletes will compete in London and this ruling will have absolutely no effect on British athletes competing in London." The BOA's lifetime bylaw has been in place since 1992.

Among British athletes currently covered by the ban are sprinter Dwain Chambers, who served a two-year ban in the BALCO scandal, and cyclist David Millar, who was suspended for two years after testing positive for EPO.

The BOA's bylaw has been under scrutiny since CAS nullified the International Olympic Committee's rule that would have banned any athletes who received a doping suspension of more than six months from competing in the next games.

The court ruled that the IOC provision amounted to a second sanction and did not conform with the WADA code. The ruling cleared American 400-meter runner LaShawn Merritt, who completed a 21-month doping ban in July, to defend his Olympic title in London next year.

The BOA made clear it would fight to retain its rule, which it contends is a matter of eligibility and not a sanction.

"On behalf of the overwhelming majority of British athletes we will vigorously defend any challenge to the selection policy which bans drug cheats from representing Team GB and we will publish the process we intend to follow in the near future," the BOA said in a statement Sunday night.

The BOA and WADA traded sharp exchanges last week ahead of the noncompliance ruling. BOA chairman Colin Moynihan accused the doping agency of failing to catch the world's biggest drug cheats and of dragging the doping fight into a "dark age." WADA officials responded that the BOA was a signatory of the code and had been part of the decision-making process throughout.