Floyd Landis says he will not defend his Tour de France title following an agreement he has made with the French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD).

In return the agency agreed to postpone its hearing into the failed doping test that Landis returned after winning the race last July. The French proceedings could result in him being banned from racing again in France.

Landis, who tested positive for an elevated testosterone/epitestosterone ratio after his triumph in Paris, had already made it clear that he would not attend Thursday's AFLD hearing in Paris. He is due to appear before the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) on May 14.

The French agency said that its hearing would be adjourned until the end of June at the latest and that Landis had agreed not to compete again in France before the end of the year.

"Mr. Landis requested that the AFLD allow him to first defend himself in front of the American agency," an AFLD statement said. "He has agreed not to take part in any cycling competition in France before the end of 2007 and that includes this year's Tour de France."

"On the basis of that commitment, the agency has decided to adjourn the hearing to a later date that will be decided on how the American procedure proceeds but no later than the end of June."

Landis is facing a two-year ban from the USADA while the AFLD can only stop him from competing in France. Only the UCI can strip him of his Tour de France title.

Lawyers for Landis welcomed the AFLD decision saying that two hearings running parallel could have resulted in contradictory statements and conclusions.

The French hearings can still result in a strange disparity of rulings, which may ultimately be sorted out at the sporting world’s highest authority, the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The French Agency began its proceedings based on the remnants of legal authority left over from a time prior to France’s ratification of the international treaty on doping in sport. Ratified by France after the Tour, the treaty specifies how doping cases should be handled. The treaty – and the World Anti-doping Code – place jurisdiction in the hands of an athlete’s national governing body. In Landis’s case, that would be USA Cycling. USA Cycling, however, has turned over its entire jurisdiction to USADA.