SYDNEY, Australia (AP)

SOCCER'S GOVERNING body lifted the international ban on Iraq just before a Thursday deadline, allowing Sunday's World Cup qualifier against Australia to go ahead.

FIFA had suspended Asian champion Iraq on Tuesday over government interference in the domestic running of the sport by dissolving the national Olympic committee and all sports federations.

The ban was provisionally and conditionally lifted just eight hours before midnight, Sydney local time, deadline after FIFA received documentation from Iraqi officials which explained the situation.

"The suspension has been lifted, the game will go ahead," FIFA president Sepp Blatter said.

IFa 'excluded'

"FIFA received a letter from the General Secretariat for the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Iraq, confirming that the Iraq Football Association (IFA) had been 'excluded' from the above-mentioned decree, thereby re-establishing the statutory order of the Iraqi association and its leaders, who will 'continue their activities inside and outside Iraq until legal election'," FIFA said in a statement.

However, FIFA said that more meetings would be scheduled with Iraqi officials in Zurich and that the ban could be re-imposed if certain criteria were not met.

"This letter is a positive step; however, it does not fully answer all of FIFA's concerns about the governmental attempts to control the Iraqi federations and the Iraqi National Olympic Committee," FIFA said. "Therefore, FIFA has decided to lift the suspension imposed on the IFa, but on a purely provisional and conditional basis."