China's football federation confirmed Thursday that it is interested in hosting the World Cup, after FIFA president Sepp Blatter hinted the Asian giant may bid for the 2018 tournament.

"All people in China hope to host the World Cup," China Football Association spokesman Dong Hua said when asked for a response to Blatter's comments.

However Dong emphasised that China's football chiefs had not lodged any formal application for the 2018 World Cup finals, saying there was still a lot of work to be done.

"This is a big issue. Over 10 cities would be involved in hosting the World Cup."

Dong also highlighted another obstacle: if FIFA stuck to its rotation policy for hosting the event, it would not be Asia's turn in 2018.

Blatter sparked speculation that China could be in line to host that year in comments on Wednesday, when he said the United States was in pole position but that China could not be ruled out.

He said Chinese football officials had been sounding out the FIFA hierarchy about the possibility of following up the 2008 Beijing Olympics by hosting a World Cup.

"I'm not a prophet, I cannot see where the World Cup is going but you have many times in history when a country had an Olympics and then the World Cup," Blatter said.

But he said he wanted to extend the current geographical rotation system beyond 2014.

That would make the United States, which has already declared its interest in hosting the 2018 tournament, the best-placed country with the Asian confederation, which now includes Australia, next in line.

(China Daily via AFP March 2, 2007)