The Court of Arbitration for Sport will rule on the dispute between Paris-Nice organisers and the International Cycling Union by Friday evening, CAS general secretary Matthieu Reeb said.

"The international professional cycling teams have asked us to rule before the start of the race so we will make a decision by tomorrow evening at the latest," Reeb said.

Leading teams on Wednesday asked CAS if they could ride in the Paris-Nice stage race without risking sanctions from the sport's governing body.

The ruling UCI have warned they may ban and/or fine teams who compete in the race, which starts on Sunday, because of a row with its organisers Amaury Sport Organisation.

The move to bring in CAS was made by the International Professional Cycling Teams, which groups teams competing in the UCI ProTour with the exception of Francaise des Jeux.

"We understand the concern of the riders and the teams," ASO said in a statement.

"Paris-Nice is a perfectly legal race, under the aegis of the French Cycling Federation.

"The case being brought before the CAS is set to settle a dispute between the UCI and the teams, related to the UCI ProTour licences," the statement read.

ASO, who also organise the Tour de France, and the UCI have been at odds over the Tour organisers' refusal to join the UCI ProTour due to a dispute over who competes in their events.

ProTour rules state that any member team has a guaranteed place in the biggest races of the season while ASO and Tour of Spain organisers Unipublic and Giro d'Italia organisers RCS, want to choose the teams participating in their races.

Reuters