Tunisia to present joint World Cup bid with Libya

Tunisia Football Federation president Hamouda Ben Ammar said his country had reached agreement with Libya for a joint bid to stage the 2010 World Cup soccer finals.

The announcement was made Tuesday as the bidding nations handed in their dossiers at FIFA headquarters here and despite the fact that world soccer's president Sepp Blatter stressed that the call had been for individual candidates and only Libya's bid would be registered.

South Africa, Egypt and Morocco are the other nations bidding for the World Cup which will definitely be held in Africa under the FIFA scheme to rotate the tournament from continent to continent.

Nigeria were also due to have been present but announced on Monday they were pulling out of the race.

"We want this event which will be held for the first time on our continent to demonstrate that through football unity and cooperation are not just vain words," said Ben Ammar.

He added: "The joint organisation will avoid unrealistic spending and waste on our continent which is the scourge of our planet today."

The sites selected are Tunis, Rades, Sousse and Sfax in Tunisia and Tripoli, Benghazi, Syrte, Sabrata and Misrata in Libya.

Tunisia are organising the 2004 African Nations football finals in January.

Libya bought its way back into the international fold last month when it formally took responsibility for the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am plane over the Scottish town of Lockerbie that killed 270 people.

It agreed to pay 2.7 billion dollars (2.5 billion euros) to families of the victims, in return for a series of diplomatic measures aimed at ending Libya's status as a supporter of terrorism.

Libya also agreed to pay compensation to relatives of the 170 people killed in the 1989 bombing of a French airliner over the Sahara.