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KUALA LUMPUR, Wednesday (Reuters)

The new head of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has called for five places for Asian teams at the next World Cup.

Mohammad bin Hamman, speaking at the AFC's Annual Congress on Wednesday, said the success of co-hosts South Korea, which reached the semi-finals, and Japan (second round) at the recent World Cup showed Asia deserved five places at the 2006 World Cup, to be staged in Germany.

"We want to see five Asian teams in 2006. We have shown to the world at the recent World Cup in Asia that we can compete at the top level," Hamman said at the congress, the day after the launch of a new AFC Champions League tournament.

"The launch of this new tournament will justify our push for more places and we want FIFA to provide more opportunities to show our talents.

"It is in our hands to improve the game in Asia. The conception of the AFC Champions League is one of the ideas but our development will not end here.

"There is a great scope of work for AFC to do and to try and emulate what Japan and Korea achieved in the World Cup."

FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who has backed an automatic place for Oceania in the 2006 World Cup, was present at the Congress.

Individual Asian nations have vowed to fight direct entry for Oceania in order to increase Asia's number, though Hamman said earlier this month the Asian Federation backed Oceania's direct entry into the World Cup.

Saudi Arabia and China were the other Asian representatives at the 2002 World Cup.

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