South Korea warned on Saturday it might seek to renegotiate the agreement that gave Japan the 2002 World Cup final if Japan does not stick to the original name for the event.

The threat came from an official spokesman of the Korean Organizing Committee (KOWOC), following Japanese news reports that Japan would take their name dispute to the executive committee of football's world governing body, FIFA.

The KOWOC spokesman told journalists in Ulsan...Should Japan bring up this issue at the executive committee, perhaps the location of the final should be re-discussed as well.

He later told AFP that if Japan took their name dispute to the FIFA executive committee meeting next month, as the Japanese reports have indicated, then South Korea will insist on new talks on the venue of the final.

Under an accord when they were jointly awarded the finals in 1996 the tournament is to be called the 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan - but Japan won the right to host the final. The two are at loggerheads because Japan has insisted on using its name before Korea on tickets sold in Japan.

The spokesman said... "FIFA has repeatedly asserted that the name should be Korea first and Japan last."

He said that the agreement with FIFA must be kept as it was an international promise."