The organizing committee of the FIFA 2006 World Cup has apologized to the Chinese for listing Tibet as a neighboring country of China on its official website.

A spokesman of the organizing committee said that the mistake has been corrected, Beijing Morning Posts reports. The spokesman also asked the newspaper to convey their apologies to the Chinese people.

Earlier, on the English, French and German versions of the website, Tibet - one of China's five provincial-level minority autonomous regions - was listed as a neighboring state in the "country information" section for China.

The misinformation, spreading worldwide through the Internet, drew the ire of the Chinese people. Many domestic websites are awash with complaints from indignant readers and surfers who sent missives to FIFA, seeking an explanation.

The official Website (fifaworldcup.yahoo.com) is operated by yahoo.com in cooperation with FIFA.

(China Daily December 10, 2003)