The World Association of Newspapers representatives hope to convince FIFA, the governing body of world football, to drop the restrictions, which would prevent most of the world’s media from providing full coverage of the World Cup on their web sites.

Media organizations that plan to cover the World Cup must agree to delay the publication of photos on their web sites until one hour after matches end. The number of photos they can publish is also strictly limited.

FIFA says it needs the delay and the limit on photos to protect its commercial contracts with licensees who spend millions for the rights to show the event live.

The FIFA rules also restrict how photos can be used in print media and exclude, for example, the use of headlines, captions, or graphics superimposed on photos. WAN considers such measures as an interference in editorial freedom.

The World Association of Newspapers, and a coalition of the world’s leading news agencies, have been negotiating with FIFA to remove these restrictions, arguing that the rules inhibit the free flow of information and that web coverage does not threaten broadcasters.

The delegation that will meet Mr Blatter on Monday includes: Hans Heinrich Coninx, WAN Vice President and Chairman of TA Media in Switzerland; Timothy Balding, Chief Executive Officer of WAN; George Brock, President of the World Editors Forum and Editor of The Times of London on Saturday; Daniel Kaczynski, Managing Director of the Swiss national newspaper association, Swiss Press; Pierre Louette, Chairman and CEO of Agence France-Presse, representing AFP, Reuters, Associated Press and Getty; and Steve Oram, the Chairman of the WAN Sports Rights Working Group and Director of the Newspaper Publishers Association in the United Kingdom.

The Paris-based WAN, the global organisation for the newspaper industry, represents 18,000 newspapers; its membership includes 73 national newspaper associations, newspapers and newspaper executives in 102 countries, 11 news agencies and nine regional and world-wide press groups.

Inquiries to: Larry Kilman, Director of Communications, WAN, 7 rue Geoffroy St Hilaire, 75005 Paris France. Tel: +33 1 47 42 85 00. Fax: +33 1 47 42 49 48. Mobile: +33 6 10 28 97 36. E-mail: lkilman@wan.asso.fr.