Mencap has accused the paralympic games of "blatant discrimination", after athletes with learning difficulties were banned from the games.

The ban on the athletes competing in the Athens Paralympics, which starts this week, follows the controversy at the last games in Sydney, where a small number of athletes falsely claimed to have a learning difficulty.

The International Paralympic Committee and the international sports body representing athletes with learning difficulties have spent the past four years trying to agree on a way of testing and classifying athletes with learning difficulties but have failed to resolve the issue.

Following the ban, athletes who had trained for years to compete in the games have had their funding cut.

Mencap chief executive Jo Williams said: "For disabled people not to be able to participate in the paralympics is blatant discrimination. We urge the sports bodies to find a solution."

Thomas Poulton-White, a 100 metres runner ranked fourth in the world said: "It's like they are saying we don't have a disability. They think we're cheats and we didn't cheat."