All 28 Olympic sports will face a vote to remain on the Games programme for 2012, the International Olympic Committee said on Wednesday.

The sports will face the vote one-by-one and must win a majority from International Olympic Committee members at their session in July.

Any sport which fails to win more than 50 percent of members' votes will be dropped from the 2012 programme, the IOC said.

If a sport is dropped, the IOC executive board will select a replacement from a list of five applicants - rugby, squash, roller sports, golf and karate.

The sport recommended by the executive board to replace an outgoing sport would first need a two-thirds majority to become an "Olympic sport" and would then need a simple majority in a second vote to be admitted to the 2012 Games programme.

The vote for the 28 sports will take place in Singapore on July 8, two days after the host city for 2012 is decided.

The last sport to be removed from the Olympic Games was polo in 1936.

In 2002 the IOC decided to cap the numbers of sports at 28, the number of events at 301 and the number of athletes at 10,500.

At that same session in Mexico City IOC president Jacques Rogge proposed that baseball, softball and modern pentathlon be dropped, and golf and rugby added.

However IOC members resisted and no vote was taken.