The possibility of having two African nations co-host the 2010 World Cup has not been rejected, the president of FIFA was quoted as saying.

"Nothing would prevent the exception made for the co-hosting of the World Cup between Japan and South Korea be revisited," Sepp Blatter was quoted as saying in several Tunisian newspapers yesterday.

There are five candidates for the 2010 competition: South Africa, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia. Libya and Tunisia have presented a joint candidature.

Still, Blatter said that the Japan-South Korean World Cup had been difficult and expensive to put together because there were two separate organization committees.

"It was as if we had organized two World Cups at the same time," he was quoted as saying.

Blatter added that Tunisia and Libya had tried to avoid those problems by forming a single organizing committee and a single press center.

His comments were carried by the newspapers Le Temps, Le Quotidien, and La Presse.