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FIFA
will decide next month on the prickly question of how many places each
continent will be allocated at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, a member
of the executive committee was reported as saying on Sunday.

Junji Ogura said
the matter would be debated and decided at the next FIFA executive
committee meeting in Zurich on March 2 and 3, Japan’s Kyodo news agency
said.

A FIFA spokesman
told Reuters the meeting had been scheduled and said the agenda would
be confirmed in the next two or three days.

The draw for the 2014 qualifying competition is due to be made in Rio de Janeiro on July 30.

Asia Football
Confederation president Mohammad Bin Hammam said last month that Asia
would not agree to anything less than the four-and-a-half places it has
in Brazil.

Australia, North
Korea, South Korea and Japan represented Asian in 2010 while Bahrain
lost in a playoff to New Zealand, winners of the Oceania qualifying
tournament.

Jack Warner,
president of the CONCACAF federation representing North and Central
America and the Caribbean, has already said that his region want their
quota increased to four direct places.

CONCACAF had three guaranteed spots in South Africa last year while Costa Rica lost to Uruguay in a playoff for another place.

South America,
which had four-and-a-half places in South Africa, is hopeful of
maintaining its quota with Brazil, who qualify automatically as hosts,
being an additional team for the continent.

Africa had six
teams at the 2010 World Cup including South Africa as hosts, although
only one Ghana made it past the first round.

Europe had 13 teams at the 2010 World Cup, of which seven were
eliminated in the group stage and three made it to the semi-finals.