A man accused of being a guard at a Nazi death camp lost an appeal Thursday in his long-running fight to avoid deportation from the United States.

John Demjanjuk, 86, of suburban Cleveland, was ordered deported in 2005 after the chief U.S. federal immigration judge determined he had served at several Nazi death camps during the Second World War. Demjanjuk has denied the allegation and still has the right to appeal in federal courts.

Specifics of Thursday's ruling by the Board of Immigration Appeals in Falls Church, Va., were not immediately available.

The board reviewed legal briefs in the case before dismissing Demjanjuk's appeal, said Elaine Komis, spokeswoman for the executive office for immigration review.

"We are studying it," said John Broadley, Demjanjuk's lawyer.

"But that's the conclusion they reached. What their reasoning is, we'll have to take a look at and federal courts will have to look at it, too."

Demjanjuk, a former auto worker, was cleared in 1993 in Israel of being the notorious "Ivan the Terrible," a sadistic guard at the Treblinka concentration camp.

But he lost his U.S. citizenship in 2002 for a second time when a federal district judge in Cleveland ruled documents from the Second World War proved he was a Nazi guard at various Nazi death or forced-labour camps.

Demjanjuk is in frail health and appeared in a wheelchair at his deportation hearing last year. He lives in virtual seclusion at his home in Seven Hills, Ohio.

"My expectation is that our lawyer is going to want to review it," said Demjanjuk's son, John. "My understanding is that it's appealable. They can't send him anywhere.

"We're not aware of any country offering to accept him from the United States."

Former chief immigration judge Michael Creppy ruled Dec. 28 last year there was no evidence to document Demjanjuk's claim he would be tortured if deported to his native Ukraine. Creppy ruled Demjanjuk should be deported to Germany or Poland if Ukraine will  not accept him.