AFC general secretary Peter Velappan said the decision was unanimous. It came during a meeting of the 45 confederation delegates, a day before the FIFA extraordinary congress.

``Asia has expressed its appreciation to UEFA and its president, Lennart Johansson, for so magnanimously giving half a seat to Asia,'' Velappan said.

``But as FIFA has not acceded to AFC's request for three seats, plus two (co-hosts Japan and South Korea) ... Asia is compelled to boycott 2002 qualifying.''

Velappan said the AFC delegation would express its feelings to FIFA by walking out of the congress today.

``It was decided by all the delegates, who felt Asia has been shabbily treated on this issue and this was an unanimous demonstration of solidarity,'' Velappan said.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter said he would not comment until he had been officiallynotified of the decision.

The AFC decision came only hours after UEFA's executive committee unanimously approved Johansson's offer, on behalf of the European Confederation, to give one half of one of its 15 places in the finals to Asia.

The Asian Confederation, Velappan explained, believes the South American Confederation Conmebol also could give up its half berth. Conmebol was allocated 4 1-2 places in the 2002 World Cup, a half place less than 1998, when it had a place reserved for defending champion Brazil.

Combined with the offer from the Europeans, Velappan said that would give Asia what it has asked for, three full guaranteed places, plus the two for co-hosts Japan and South Korea.

``If Europe can give up a place, why not South America?'' Velappan said. ``We're talking about 10 countries (in Conmebol). We are 45 in Asia.''

Velappan said the AFC supports the decision of FIFA vice president and also Korea Football Association president Chung Moon-Joon, Mohamed Bin Hammam of Qatar, Abdullah Kal-Dabal of Saudi Arabia and Thailand's Worawi Makudi to resign from all FIFA standing committees except the powerful executive committee.

All four are members of the organising committee for the FIFA World Cup in 2002. Chung refused to speak to reporters, referring all questions to Velappan.

UEFA's half-berth offer was announced Tuesday by Blatter after two days of FIFA executive committee meetings.

Except for a comment on Tuesday from Chung that he was not optimistic Johansson would be able to convince his UEFA colleagues, everything seemed to be working to an end to the controversial issue.

On Tuesday, Velappan said he was ``satisfied'' with the half-berth offer, a position he initially took earlier this year. The issue has been one of the most contentious facing FIFA since December, when it allocated the 32 berths for 2002 among the six regional confederations.