American Floyd Landis, stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title for doping, was on Wednesday banned from all competitions in France by the country's anti-doping agency AFLD.

Landis tested positive for testosterone on July 20 last year and was suspended from competition for two years by a three-member panel organized by the North American Arbitration Association in September. Landis has appealed the ban, which expires on January 29, 2009, to the International Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The USADA ban meant Landis was suspended for competitions organized by cycling's world governing body the UCI and affiliated national cycling federations. Because of the ongoing dispute between the UCI and cycling’s biggest promoter, Amaury Sport Organisation, the 2008 Tour de France might be organized outside the auspices of the French federation, opening the very remote possibility that Landis could race in the 2008 Tour.

The AFLD had opened its own investigation of the Landis case early in 2007, but suspended the case pending the outcome of the American hearing, which resulted in the ruling in September.

The French case was re-opened in October and on Wednesday the AFLD voted to extend Landis’s suspension to French events that are organized outside of the jurisdiction of the French cycling federation. Landis has the right to appeal the decision to France's highest administration ruling body, the Conseil d'Etat.