LEED experiments and thermal desorption spectroscopy are used to investigate the adsorption of CO on a Cu(110) surface. LEED studies reveal two ordered phases characterized by a (2 × 1) pattern and a compression structure at higher coverages. The ordered phases are obtained after preceding of a disordered phase at elevated temperatures. TDS is studied in dependence on initial coverage and heating rate. Desorption energies and frequency factors obtained by trace analysis are found to be coverage dependent in accordance to the LEED data. The initial sticking coefficient is measured to be s 0 = 0.46. The coverage dependence of the sticking coefficient suggests a precursor state. TDS in dependence on heating rate exhibits anomalous behaviour in the peak temperature shift. An explanation of this phenomenon is proposed taking into account a time dependent relaxation between the compression phase and the tightly bound state.