Former world 100 metres record holder Tim Montgomery [Images] was banned for two years on Tuesday for doping offences related to the BALCO laboratory in California.

The Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said its three-man panel unanimously accepted evidence presented by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) that Montgomery had taken banned substances provided by BALCO.

BALCO head Victor Conte was sentenced to four months in prison last October after pleading guilty to distributing steroids.

The ban will start from June 6 this year, the first day of the CAS hearing into the case.

CAS also ruled that all Montgomery's results from March 31, 2001, the date from which he admitted taking drugs, should be annulled and his earnings confiscated.

Montgomery set his world record of 9.78 seconds at the 2002 Paris Grand Prix final.

Chryste Gaines, a member of the U.S. women's 4x100 metres gold medal-winning team at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics [Images], was also banned for two years from June 6.

The bans are the result of a new USADA rule which allow doping suspensions even if there is no positive test.

CAS said Montgomery had told former double world sprint champion Kelli White he had used the designer steroid THG (tetrahydrogestrinone) produced by the BALCO laboratory and known colloquially as the "clear".

White was suspended for two years after admitting using banned drugs, including THG and the blood booster EPO (erythropoietin).

"Having seen Ms White and heard her testimony...the members of the panel do not doubt the veracity of her evidence," CAS said.

"She answered all questions, including in relation to her own record of doping, in a forthright, honest and reasonable manner."

Montgomery, who has denied ever taking drugs, did not give evidence before the panel.