Brazil's Olympic Committee (COB) is placing its faith in quality ahead of quantity at the London Games.

Brazil will take a team of 259 athletes - 136 men and 123 women - across 32 sports, COB announced on Tuesday.

The figure is 18 fewer overall than the squad that went to the 2008 Games in Beijing.

According to COB president Carlos Arthur Nuzman, the reason for the decline are stricter qualifying standards, particularly in athletics and swimming.

"We are very satisfied to have achieved our primary goal which was to have a squad of 250 athletes," Nuzman said.

"In London we're going to have a delegation that has even more quality than in Beijing."

Nuzman added the Olympics would provide athletes with an invaluable learning curve ahead of the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.

"Our aim is to keep improving our standards so that we can reach another level in Rio in four years," Nuzman said.

"We hope to come home from London with approximately the same number of medals as we did after Bejing, where we won 15."