World soccer governing body FIFA and the World Association of Newspapers has set up a joint working group to work out the finer points of media coverage at the 2006 World Cup finals.

A joint statement said Tuesday that the decision was taken at the FIFA headquarters in Switzerland during a meeting of the two organisations chaired by FIFA president Sepp Blatter.

WAN has requested that restrictions on the use of digital photographs be lifted, and that other points of disagreement be resolved such as the one-hour, post-match embargo on the use of photographs and restrictions on the use of photographs in printed editions of newspapers and the way they are distributed.

FIFA have asked WAN to nominate a representative on its media committee, which handles all matters concerning media working conditions at FIFA events.

Both FIFA and WAN will meet again in a month's time to review the situation ahead of the World Cup finals in Germany..

The Paris-based WAN organisation represents 18,000 newspapers, 11 news agencies and nine regional and world-wide press groups.

Source: Xinhua